


^ v * 









V ^ 

- 






->. 



THE 



LIFE OF LUTHER, 



IN FORTY-EIGHT HISTORICAL ENGRAVINGS 



BY GUSTAV KGENIG 



WITH EXPLANATIONS BY ARCHDEACON HARE: 



CONTINUED 



BY SUSANNA WIN K W OK TH 



NEW YORK: 
CHARLES SCRIBNER, 377 & 379 BROADWAY. 

1857. 



• 



i^ 






U> 



\* 



W. II. TIXS.OV, STEREOTYPER, GEORGE RUSSELL & CO., PRINTERS, 

24 BeekmflD St. PMt, 61 Beekman Streut. 



PREFACE 



This Work, which was commenced by Archdeacon Hare, 
was interrupted by his lamented death before he had com- 
pleted it : under these circumstances, his family, having 
kindly placed at my disposal the books set apart for refer- 
ence by the Archdeacon, requested me to continue the 
Work. 

The principal authorities for it have been the biog- 
raphies of Luther written by Melanchthon, Mathesius, 
Meurer, and Jurgens ; Luther's " Briefe," edited by De 
Wette (Berlin, 1825-28) ; his " Tisckreden," edited by 
Forstemann (Leipsig, 18M - 48) ; and " Sammtliche 
Werke," (Erlangen, 1826-55). 

I beg also to acknowledge my obligations to the his- 
tories of the Eeformation, by Eanke, Merle d'Aubigne, and 
above all to Dean Waddington's admirable work. 



VI PEEFAOE. 

The extracts from Luther's writings and letters, though 
in sortie cases borrowed from Meuref, have always been 
verified by comparison with the original, except in the 
case of one or two tracts that will appear in the last few 
volumes not yet published, of the Erlangen edition of 
Luther's works, to which alone I have had access. 

Not having been able to find in the works within my 
reach, any reference to the circumstance which forms the 
subject of Plate XLV., I have translated that section 
from Professor Gelzer's notes to the German edition of the 
Plates. 

S. WlNKWORTH. 

Manchestek, England. 



LIST OF THE ENGRAVINGS. 



HI.ATK PARR 

I. Birth of Luther 11 

II. Luther is taken to School ... 13 

III. Luther, in his School-days, sings before the House of Dauie Ursula Cotta, at 

Eisenach 17 

IV. Luther Finds a Latin Bible in the University Library at Erfurt . . . .19 

V. Luther's Friend, Alexis, is killed by a Flash of Lightning close beside him on a 

Journey, when they were travelling together 23 

VI. Luther enters the Augustinian Convent, 1505 25 

- VII. Luther is ordained Priest 29 

VIII. Luther's Troubles and Penances in the Convent . 33 

IX. Luther restored by Music 36 

X. Luther comforted by an aged Monk 39 

XI. Luther gives Lectures at Wittenberg . .41 

XII. Luther preaches in the Convent Chapel 43 

XIII. Luther at Kome 45 

-. XIV. Luther created a Doctor 49 

XV. Luther acting as Vicar-general of the Augustinian Order . . . . .51 



viii LIST OF THE ENGRAVINGS. 



PLATE 



TAOE 



- XYI. Below, Luther is seen refusing Absolution to Penitents producing their Indul- 

gences; and in the centre he is affixing his Ninety-five Theses to the 
Church-door of Wittenberg. On the left, Tetzel is dispensing his Indul- 
gences and burning Luther's Theses ; while on the right, the Students of 
Wittenberg are burning Tetzel's Counter-Theses 55 

XVII. Luther before the Legate Gaetan 61 

XVIII. Luther's Disputation with Eck 65 

- XIX. Luther burning the Pope's Bull 69 

XX. Luther's Entrance into Worms *73 

XXI. Above, Luther is seen preparing Himself by Prayer to appear before the 
Emperor and Diet. Below, he is standing with Frundsberg at the Entrance 
of the Hall 11 

-> XXII. Luther before the Diet of Worms 19 

XXIII. Luther taken Prisoner on his Return 81 

XXIV. Luther translating the Bible at Wartburg 83 

XXV. Below, Luther is riding away from Wartburg. Above, to the left, Luther and 
the Swiss Students in the Black Bear at Jena ; to the right, Luther, amidst 
his Friends at Wittenberg, recognized by the same Students . . .85 

XXVI. Luther allaying the Fury of the Iconoclasts. 1522 89 

XXVII. Luther continues his Translation of the Bible with the help of Melanch- 

thon. 1523-4 93 

XXVIII. Luther Preaching at Seaburg against the Peasant's War in 1525 . . .95 

XXIX. Luther's Marriage 99 

XXX. Luther's Conference with Zwingle concerning the Sacrament. 1529 . . . 101 

XXXI. The Presenting of the Augsburg Confession of Faith 105 

XXXII. The Translation of the Bible 109 

XXXIII. The Improvement of the Schools and Introduction of the Catechism . .111 

XXXIV. The Sermon 115 

XXXV. The Administration of the Lord's Supper in both Kinds . . . . 119 

XXXVI. Luther reading the Bible to the Elector John . . . . . . .123 



LIST OF THE ENGRAVINGS. ix 



PLATE 



PAGB 



XXXVII. Luther visited in Sickness by the Elector John Frederick . ' . . .127 

XXXVIII. Luther's Portrait taken by Lucas Cranach 129 

XXXIX. Luther in Prayer at the Bedside of Melanchthon 131 

— XL. Luther's Singing School in the House ; and the Introduction of the German 

Hymn 133 

XLI. Luther's Summer Pleasures in the Midst of his Family 135 

XLII. Luther's Winter Pleasures in the Midst of his Family 139 

XLIII. Luther beside the Coffin of his Daughter Magdalene 143 

XLIV. Luther and Hans Kohlhase 145 

XLV. Luther ministering to the Sick and Dying in Time of Pestilence . . . 147 

XL VI. Luther goes to Eisleben. His Danger by the Way. His Arrival . . 149 

XLVII. Luther's Death 151 

XL VIII. Luther's Burial 155 



LIFE OF LUTHEB. 



I. 



BIRTH OF LUTHER. 



LUTHER was born at Eisleben, the capital of the Counts of 
Mansfeld, in Thuringia, between eleven and twelve o'clock 
on the night of the 10th of November, 1483. It was the eve of 
St. Martin's, by whose name he was baptized the next clay, in 
St. Peter's Church in that town. In allusion to this, the artist 
has placed a picture of St. Martin on the right. 

His father, Hans Luther, is kneeling, presenting his new-born 
child to God. Schlusselburg says he had heard from Luther's 
relations that his father would often pray aloud and fervently, 
by the cradle of his boy, that God would grant him His grace, 
so that, bearing in mind his name (lauter, pure), he might labor 
for the propagation of pure doctrine. This bears the mark of a 
story modified at least by subsequent events, but agrees well 
with what we know of Hans Luther's character. He was an 



11 



12 BIRTH OF LUTHER. 

honest, straightforward, simple-hearted German peasant, a miner 
in the Hartz mountains. 

Luther himself indulged in the same play upon his name. 
when he begged that his godchild. Ratzeberger's daughter,, should 
be called Clara, so that people might be reminded that Luther 
was her godfather : for "lauter" and " clear," he said, are sisters- 
children. In the early stages of his contest with Rome, he often 
signed himself ''Eleutherius," and later in life, with the ever- 
deepening consciousness of his sinfulness. " Christi Lutuni." 

In his mother Margaret. Melanchthon says, were the other 
virtues becoming an honourable matron, and. above all, modesty, 
the fear of God. and prayer : so that other good women looked 
up to her as a model of virtues. "When Luther had to draw up 
a Form of Marriage, he commemorated the names of his parents 
in the expression. ,! Hans. wilt thou have Greta to thy wedded 
wife r 

Among Luther's letters are two long ones, one written to his 
sick father, in February. 1530, a couple of months before his 
death : the other in May. 1531. to his mother, on her death-bed; 
both are full of Christian faith and hope and love. 

The house in Eisleben in which Luther was born was several 
times preserved from fire by the pious reverence of the towns- 
folk, who pulled down the adjoining houses to keep off the 
flames ; but in 1689 all except the ground-story was burnt down. 
It was built up again, however : and the room in which he was 
said to have been born was turned into a free school for poor 
orphans. 



II. 



LUTHER IS TAKEN TO SCHOOL. 



u 1 FANS LUTHER (says Mathesius), having been blessed by 
AX our kind and bountiful God in his labours, so that he had 
two furnaces or smelting ovens at Mansfeld, brought up his bap- 
tized son in the fear of God, from the well-earned produce of his 
mine, and, when the boy came to years of understanding, sent him, 
with a hearty prayer, to the Latin School, where Martin learnt 
his Ten Commandments, Child's Creed, and Lord's Prayer, dili- 
gently and quickly, along with Donatus, the Child's Grammar, 
Cisio Janus, and Christian hymns. For though the truth was 
obscured under Antichrist, God yet wonderfully preserved the 
sacred catechism in schools, along with infant Baptism in the 
parish Churches, for which we old people have to give thanks 
to our God and to the ancient schools." 

Nearly half a century afterwards, Luther wrote in a Bible, 
which he gave to his brother-in-law, " To my dear old friend, 



14 LUTHEE IS TAKEN TO SCHOOL. 

Nicholas Omeler, who carried me more than once in his arms, 
when I was a little child, to and back from school ; when we 
neither of us knew that a brother-in-law was carrying a brother- 
in-law." 

The rod in the schoolmaster's hand, and the boy crying be- 
hind his chair, are significant of the severity which prevailed in 
the schools of that age. Luther himself, in the Table-talk, 
c. xliii. § 155, says, "It is a sad thing when children look with 
dread on their parents, or scholars on their teachers, by reason of 
their harsh punishments. For many unwise schoolmasters spoil 
fine dispositions with their scolding, raging, beating, and flogging ; 
treating the children much as a gaoler or scourger would a thief. 
The 'lupus' tables, the repetitions, 'legor, legeris, legire, legitur 
— cujus partis orationis' — these put children to the torture. I 
was beaten once at school, fifteen times in one forenoon. Every 
government ought to attend to the differences of character. 
Children must be punished and flogged ; but, nevertheless, one 
ought to love them, as St. Paul commands the Colossians : 'Fa- 
thers provoke not your children, lest they be discouraged.' ' 

In other places, Luther speaks of the great improvement 
which had taken place in these respects since his boyhood, as in 
the Table-talk, c. lxvii. § 1. In the year 1539 Luther said, 
' ' "What pleasant time and conveniences the young have nowadays 
for studying ; for all the arts are now taught in good order and 
rightly, so that any one can easily catch them, unless he is a 
blockhead. Nor are the boys treated so harshly. Of } 7 ore, the 
young were brought up with too much severity, so that at school 



LUTHER IS TAKEN TO SCHOOL. 15 

they were called martyrs. Especially were they plagued with 
their 'lupus/ and cases, and tenses, which yet were of no use, 
very irksome, and wearisome, a mere waste of time, and whereby 
many a good wit was spoilt." 






III. 



LUTHER, IN 111S SCHOOLDAYS, SINGS BEFORE THE HOUSE OE DAME URSULA 

COTTA, AT EISENACH. 



MATHESIUS relates that " when Martin was in his fourteenth 
year, his father sent him to a school at Magdeburg. There 
the boy, like the children of many respectable and even wealthy 
men, went about begging for bread, and cried out his ' Panem 
propter Deimi.' That which is to be great must begin by being 
little : and if children are bred up too tenderly and grandly, it 
harms them all their life long. The next year he went to school 
at Eisenach. Here, also, he sang awhile at doors for his bread, 
until a godly matron, Cotta by name, took him to her table ; be- 
cause she bore a strong affection to the boy for his singing and 
earnest prayers." This practice obtained a sanction in common 
opinion from that of the Mendicant Orders. 

In his excellent sermon on the duty of sending children to 
school, Luther, after quoting those verses from the 113th Psalm, 
"He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, 7; &c, adds, "They 

say, and it is the truth, that the Pope himself was a schoolboy.. 

3 



18 LUTHER IN HIS SCHOOLDAYS. 

Therefore, despise not the lads who come to your doors, and cry 
'Panem propter Deum,' and sing the bread-rimes, seeing that the 
Psalm tells us, you hear great princes and lords singing. I was 
such a morsel-craver once, and begged bread from door to door, 
especially at my dear town of Eisenach, although my good father 
kept me afterwards with all love and honesty at the High School 
at Erfurt, and, by the sweat of his brow, helped me to become 
what I am ; yet I was a morsel-craver, and, according to this 
Psalm, by my pen have come to this, that I would not change 
now with the Turkish Emperor, so that I should have his riches 
and lose my knowledge. Yea, I would not take the riches of the 
whole world in exchange, piled up many times over ; yet, without 
doubt, I should never have come to this, had I not gone to school, 
and learnt how to write. Therefore, let thy son go and study, 
even though he should have now and then to beg his bread : for 
thus thou wilt give our Lord Grod a fine piece of wood, out of 
which He may carve you a lord. It must continue to be as it 
has been, that thy son and mine — that is, the children of common 
folks — will have to govern the world, both in a spiritual and 
temporal sense, as this Psalm declares." 

In Dame Cotta's house Luther received instructions in music, 
as is represented in the lower engraving. 



IV. 



LUTHER FINDS A LATIN BIBLE IN THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY AT ERFURT. 



66 TN the year 1501 (says Mathesius), the young lad was sent 
J- by his parents to the High School at Erfurt. At this Uni- 
versity he began to study his logic and other scholastic arts with 
great diligence and earnestness ; and although by nature he was 
a hasty and merry fellow, he began his studies every morning 
with a hearty prayer and churchgoing ; for this was his maxim, 
1 He who prays diligently has learnt more than half his lesson. 7 
At the same time he never missed a lecture, often questioned his 
teacher, and talked reverently with him, and, when there was no 
public lecture, he spent his time in the University Library. 
There, one day, when looking carefully over the books to disco- 
ver the good ones, he lighted on a Latin Bible, which he had 
never in his life seen before. Here he observed, with great sur- 
prise, that there were many more texts, epistles, and gospels in 
it, than were commonly expounded in ordinary postils, and in 



20 LUTHER FINDS A LATIN BIBLE. 

church from the pulpits. As he was turning over the Old Testa- 
ment, he met with the history of Samuel, and his mother Han- 
nah ; this he read through hurriedly, with great pleasure and 
joy. And because all this was new to him, he began to wish 
from the bottom of his heart, that the good God would some time 
or other give him such a book for his own ; which wish and 
prayer was richly granted to him." 

The exaggerated inferences which have been drawn from this 
story, concerning the scarcity of Bibles at the beginning of the 
sixteenth century, have been refuted by Mr. Maitland, in his 
Essays on the Dark Ages (p. 469). When we think of the bulk 
and the cost of a Bible at that time, it is not very surprising that 
the son of a Thuringian miner, whom his father seems to have 
intended for the law, should have reached his seventeenth year 
without ever having had one in his hands. 

Jtirgens, in his Life of Luther (i. p. 487), cites some passages 
from a Latin manuscript of the Table-talk, confirming the state- 
ment of Mathesius. The main interest and value of the fact is 
rather biographical than historical. The engraving represents 
how the schoolmen, with their head, Aquinas, and even Aristotle 
himself, are pushed aside under the delight of the new disco- 
very. 

In 1527, Luther wrote a letter to the people of Erfurt, which 
he prefixed to' a work by his friend Menius. In this he tells 
them, " You have had a High School among you for very many 
years, in which I myself spent several years ; but this I will 
swear, that in all that time there was not a single true Christian 



LUTHER FI^DS A LATI^ BIBLE. 21 

lecture or sermon delivered by any one, such as you may now 
hear in every corner. how happy should I have thought my- 
self then, if I could have heard a Gospel, or even a Psalm ; 
whereas now you may hear the whole Scripture.'" 



Y. 



LUTHER'S FRIEND ALEXIS IS KILLED BY A FLASH OF LIGHTNING CLOSE BESIDE 
HIM, ON A JOURNEY, WHEN THEY WERE TRAVELLING TOGETHER. 



u A T the end of the year 1505 (says Mathesius), a clear friend 
-£^- of Luther's having been killed, and he himself having 
been much frightened by a tremendous thunderstorm, which ter- 
rified him with the thought of God's anger, and of the Last Judg- 
ment, he resolved in his own mind, and made a vow, that he 
would go into a convent, where he would serve God, and appease 
Him by saying masses, and gain eternal happiness by monastic 
sanctity." 

Melanchthon too, in speaking of the terrors of conscience by 
which Luther was driven into a convent, says that he felt them 
for the first time, and with the greatest violence, in the year in 
which he lost a friend, killed by some accident. ("Hos terrores 
seu primum seu aurrimos sensit eo anno, cum sodalem nescio quo 
casu interfectum amisisset.") 

The artist, for his purpose, has combined the two incidents, 
as though the friend had been killed by a thunderbolt. Jtirgens 



23 



24 ALEXIS KILLED BY LIGHTNING. 

(i. p. 318) suggests that he more probably met his death in one 
of those duels which have for centuries been a main scandal of 
the German Universities ; and this agrees best with the expres- 
sion used by Mathesius, " erstochen." 



VI. 



LUTIIER ENTERS THE AUGUSTINIAN CONVENT, 1505. 



MELANCHTHON relates that, in Luther's twenty-first year, 
suddenly, contrary to the expectation of his parents and 
kindred, he came to the convent of Augustinian monks at Erfurt, 
and asked to be received into it. " The reason of his entering on 
this mode of life, which he conceived to be the best suited for 
piety and religious studies, was this, as he was wont to tell, and 
as many know. Often, when he was meditating attentively on 
the wrath of God, or on wonderful examples of punishments, he 
was suddenly assailed by such terror that he almost fainted away. 
I myself once saw him, exhausted by his exertions in a doctrinal 
disputation, throw himself on a bed in the next chamber, where 
he repeated these words, intermixed with gesticulations, ' He 
concluded all under sin that He might have mercy upon all.' " 
Then follows the statement already quoted, that these terrors 
became more violent in consequence of the death of one of his 
friends. This is said to have taken place on St. Alexis' day (the 



26 ENTEES THE AUGUSTINIAN CONVENT. 

17cb. of July), 1505, whether Luther chose that day in memory 
of his lost friend, or whether the traditional name of his friend 
owed its origin, as is not improbable, to that of the saint's 
day. Jiirgens, on the authority of a manuscript, says (i. 521) 
that on the eve of that day he invited a party of his friends to 
supper, enjoyed himself with them singing and playing, and 
when taking leave of them, said, " To-day you see me, but hence- 
forward no more. 7 ' 

In 1521, when Luther published his " Treatise on the Inva- 
lidity of Monastic Tows," he dedicated it to his father, and says 
to him : " It is now come well nigh to the sixteenth year of my 
monkery, to which I betook myself without your knowledge and 
will. You had much care and fear for my weakness, for that I 
was only a young fellow of twenty-two, and that you had learnt 
from many examples that monkery turns out disastrously with 
many ; you were also purposing to marry me richly and honour- 
ably, and thus to settle me in life. And this your fear and anx- 
iety, and your displeasure with me, were for a time quite impla- 
cable ; and the advice of all your friends was in vain, who said 
that if you wanted to offer a sacrifice to God, you should give 
Him what you held best and dearest. Yet at length you yielded 
your own will to- God, but nevertheless did not lay aside your 
fear and anxiety ; for I remember still too well when you were 
reconciled to me and spoke to me, and I said that I was called 
by a terrible apparition from Heaven. For I did not willingly 
become a monk, much less for the sake of feeding my belly ; but 
when I was suddenly surrounded with terror and the anguish of 



ENTERS THE AUGTTSTINIAN CONTENT. 27 

death, I vowed a compulsory and extorted vow. And immedi- 
ately you said to me, ' God grant that it be not an imposture and 
a diabolical spectre. 7 This word, even as though God himself 
had spoken by your mouth, penetrated and sank to the bottom 
of my soul ; but I stopped and blocked up my heart as much as 
I could against you and your word. Besides, there was yet 
another time, when I (as a son may with a father) complained 
of your anger ; you smote- and knocked me down in such wise, 
that in my whole life I have hardly heard a word from any man 
that more mightily entered into and seized me. For this was 
your word : ' Have you not also heard that we are to obey our 
parents V Wrapped up in my own piety, I heard and looked 
down on you, but yet in my heart I never could think lightly of 
that word." 



VII. 



LUTHER IS ORDAINED PRIEST. 



LUTHER'S ordination took place on the Sunday Cantate, the 
fourth after Easter, in 1507. His earliest remaining letter 
is one inviting his friend Braun, the vicar of Eisenach, to come 
to him on that occasion. In it he says, " Since our glorious God, 
who is holy in all His works, has vouchsafed so magnificently to 
exalt me, an unhappy and utterly unworthy sinner, and to call 
me by His pure and most bountiful mercy into His sublime min- 
istry, it behoves me to show such gratitude to the infinitude of 
His divine bounty as a grain of dust can, by undertaking the 
office with which I am entrusted." 

In his after life he often spoke of this day, and of his feelings 
on the occasion. Thus in the Table-talk (cxxxv. § 9) he says, 
" A man's first mass used to be highly esteemed, and brought in 
much money : it quite snowed with presents and offerings. The 
canonical hours were set out with torches. The dear young gen- 
tleman, if his mother was living, had to dance with her, so that 



30 LUTHER IS ORDAINED PRIEST. 

the spectators stood and wept for joy ; but if she was dead, he 
placed her under the cup, and released her out of purgatory. 
When I celebrated my first mass at Erfurt, I could almost have 
died ; for I had no faith [in Christ], but I thought solely how 
worthy I myself was, that I might avoid sinning, and omit 
nothing in the performance of the mass." 

Again, in the commentary on Genesis, xxv. 21, when speak- 
ing on the difficulty and awfulness of prayer, he says, "That a 
man when praying should tremble and shrink, is not surprising, 
as formerly, when I was a monk, and first read in the canon of 
the mass, ' Te igitur clementissime Pater,' and ' Offerimus tibi 
vivo, vero et seterno,' I was utterly confounded and terrified by 
these words ; for I considered, who am I that I should address 
such majesty, when all are dismayed at the sight and conversa- 
tion of any earthly king or prince." Again, in his exhortation to 
the clergy assembled at Augsburg in 1530, he says, " The Bishop 
who consecrated me, when he put the cup into my hand, said, 
' Accipe potestatem sacrificandi pro vivis et mortuis.' That the 
earth did not swallow us both up, was too great a mark of God's 
patience." 

Of the true dignity of the priesthood, Luther always retained 
the highest conception, as it is expressed in his sermon on the 
duty of sending children to school. " I hope that believers, and 
all who call themselves Christians, are aware that the spiritual 
class was founded and instituted by God, not with gold and 
silver, but with the precious blood and bitter death of His only- 
begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. For out of his wounds 



LUTHER IS ORDAINED PRIEST. 31 

the sacraments, as was represented of yore on paintings, do 
verily flow ; and He has dearly earned that there should be such 
an office in the whole world, to preach, to baptize, to loose, to 
bind, to minister the sacraments, to comfort, to warn, to admo- 
nish, with the Word of God, and whatever else belongs to the 
office of the cure of souls. For this office not only furthers and 
helps our temporal life, and all secular states of men, but gives 
eternal life, and releases from death and sins, which is its main 
business : indeed, the world stands and endures solely for the 
sake of this class ; else it would have perished long ago. 

11 1 do not mean our present spiritual class, in convents and 
abbeys, with their prohibition of marriage : I mean that class 
which has the office of preaching, and the ministry of the Word 
and sacraments, which gives the Spirit and all blessedness, 
which one cannot obtain by any singing or processions ; such as 
the office of pastor, teacher, preacher, reader, priest, clerk, school- 
master, and whatever else pertains to similar offices." 



VIII. 



LUTHER'S TROUBLES AND TEXAXCES IX TIIE COXYEXT. 



ALL the accounts of Luther's monastic life concur in repre- 
- senting him as tormented by the terrors of conscience, and 
as endeavouring to allay them by the severest penances and mor- 
tifications. Melanchthon's words have been quoted already. 

Thus in his commentary on Genesis, one of his latest works, 
ch. xxix. v. 1, he sa}~s, " I too, formerly, when a monk, was 
much holier than I now am, as to outward forms, repeated more 
prayers, watched more, fasted more, vexed my flesh ; in short, 
my whole life was very godly in the eyes of others, though not 
so in my own ; for I was much troubled and afflicted. Now, on 
the other hand, I eat and clothe myself as others do, nothing 
marked or singular appears in my life. Then, when I was a 
monk, I did nothing else than waste my time, wear out my health, 
and wound my conscience with seeking justification by works ; so 
that even now it can scarcely be healed. For, in addition to 
nature, in which the boasting of works is inwrought, I acquired 

5 33 



34 LUTHEE'S TBOTJBLES AND PENANCES. 

the habit and custom of looking at my own works and dignity. 
Now, however, I know for certain, that one lesson, one Lord's 
prayer, is more efficacious and more approved by God than all 
those liturgies which I mumbled over through those fifteen years ; 
because I know that I am heard. Nor is there need of any 
watching or special fasting and abstinence, because God has given 
me this messenger of Satan, with other difficulties and crosses of 
this world, which try me far more than all those things." 

Again, in ch. xxvii. v. 28, " We, too, when we were monks, 
profited nothing by our self-tormenting, because we would not 
recognize our sin and impiety ; nay, we were ignorant of our 
original sin, and did not feel that incredulity was a sin, and incul- 
cated and taught doubt concerning God's mercy. Therefore the 
more I ran and desired to come to Christ, the further He receded 
from me. After confession and saying mass, I never could be at 
peace in my mind ; because the conscience cannot gain any firm 
consolation from works." 

Again, in his Postil on the Epistle for the Eighteenth Sunday 
after Trinity, " I, too, wished to be a holy and pious monk, and 
prepared myself with great devotion for mass and prayer. But 
when I was most devout, I went a doubter to the altar ; a 
doubter I came back from it : if I had made my confession, I 
doubted ; if I had not made it, I was in despair. For we were 
under the notion that we could not pray, and should not be 
heard, unless we were quite pure and sinless, like the saints in 
Heaven : so that it would be much better to give up praying, and 
clo something else, than thus vainly to repeat the name of God." 



LUTHER'S TROUBLES AXD PEIANCES. 35 

Again, in his short answer to Duke George, in 1533, he says : 
"That the monks compared their monkery to Christ's baptism, 
they cannot deny. I, when I took the vows, was congratulated 
by the prior, the convent, and the confessor, that I was now like 
an innocent child, coming pure from its baptism. And verily I 
would gladly have rejoiced at such a noble act, that I had become 
an excellent man, as to have made myself so grand and holy by 
my own deed, without Christ's blood, so easily and quietly. But 
though I loved to hear such sweet praises and fine words about 
my own doings, and let myself be esteemed a conjuror who could 
make himself holy in such a paltry way, and could devour death 
and the devil, yet it would not hold. When any petty assault of 
death or sin came against me, I fell, and found no help either in 
baptism or monkery : I had so long lost both Christ and His 
baptism. Then I became the most miserable man upon earth ; 
day and night I howled and was in despair, and no man could 
help me. In such way was I bathed and baptized in my monk- 
ery, and had the true sweating sickness : God be praised that I 
did not sicken unto death, or I should long ago have been at the 
bottom of hell with my monkery. For I knew Christ no more, 
except as a severe judge, from whom I desired to fly, and yet 
could not escape." 



IX. 



LUTHER RESTORED BY MUSIC. 



LUTHER had a very strong love for music, and its power over 
hirn was great. When he was afflicted with a fit of melan- 
choly, he used to seek comfort therein. Seckendorf (p. 21) says, 
that " once, when he had shut himself up in his cell for a couple 
of days without admitting any one, Edensberg, with some young 
musicians, knocked at the door, and, obtaining no answer, broke 
it open. There they found him lying in a fainting fit, and 
brought him back to life, not so much by medicine or food, as by 
a ' consort of music' " 

In the Table-talk (c. lxviii.) Luther speaks of this power of 
music. " One of the most beautiful and noblest of Grod's gifts is 
music. Satan is a great enemy to it, so that one can drive away 
many temptations and evil thoughts by means of it. The devil 
cannot abide it. It drives away the spirit of melancholy, as we 
see in King Saul. Music is the best solace to a man in sorrow ; 
it quiets, quickens, and refreshes the heart. He who despises 



37 



38 LUTHEE RESTORED BY MUSIC. 

music, as all fanatics do, will never be my friend. For music is 
a gift of God, not a human gift. Hence it drives away the devil, 
and makes folks cheerful ; at the sound of it, one forgets all 
anger, lust, pride, and other vices. I give music the next place, 
and v the highest honour, after theology. "We see how David and 
all the saints clothed their godly thoughts in verses and songs, 
' quia pacis tempore regnat Musica. 7 " 



X. 



LUTHER COMFORTED BY AN AGED MONK, 



MELANCHTHON says that in his theological studies, Luther 
was much stimulated by his pangs and terrors of conscience ; 
and " he often related that he was greatly comforted by the dis- 
course of an old man in the college at Erfurt, who, when he 
talked to him about his internal conflicts, spoke much to him of 
faith, and referred him to the Creed, in which we declare our 
belief in the remission of sins. This article he interpreted as not 
merely declaring the belief that some persons will attain forgive- 
ness, as the devils believe that David and Peter are forgiven, 
but as a Divine commandment that we should each of us believe 
our own sins to be forgiven. And this interpretation he con- 
firmed by the saying of Bernard, in his sermon on the Annuncia- 
tion. ' Moreover, then, you must believe this, that for His sake 
your sins are pardoned. This is the testimony which the Holy 
Spirit declares in your heart, saying, "thy sins are forgiven to 
thee." : By these words, Luther said, he was not only comforted,. 



40 LUTHEE COMFOKTED BY AN AGED MONK. 

but enlightened concerning the opinions of St. Paul, who so often 
inculcates that we are justified by faith." 

Mathesius tells the same story. " While he studied and 
prayed in the convent day and night, chastening and wasting his 
body by fasting and watching, he was very uneasy and sorrowful, 
and even his masses gave him no comfort. Then God sent him 
an old brother in the convent for a confessor, who comforted him 
heartily, and directed him to the gracious forgiveness of sins, as 
it is proclaimed in the Apostles' Creed, and taught him, out of 
St. Bernard's sermons, that he was to believe, with regard to 
himself, that our merciful Grod and Father, by the one sacrifice 
and blood of His Son, had obtained the forgiveness of all sins, 
and caused this to be declared by the Holy Spirit in the Aposto- 
lic Church by the words of the Absolution. This was a living 
and mighty comfort to his heart ; and he often spoke of his con- 
fessor with great honour and hearty thankfulness." 

There are many observations and anecdotes of the deepest 
interest connected with this matter in the " Table-talk," c. xxvii. 



WL 



- - 



^■'V--> 




XI 



LUTHER GIVES LECTURES AT WITTENBERG, 



THE University of Wittenberg was founded by the Elector 
Frederic of Saxony, in 1502, with, the advice of Dr. Martin 
Pollich, of Metrichstadt, and of Staupitz, who was vicar or super- 
intendent over forty Augustinian convents in Thuringia. ' ' Stau- 
pitz/" Mathesius says, "having been charged to look out for 
learned men for the new University, and having perceived a 
peculiar aptitude and an earnest piety in Luther, removed Bro- 
ther Martin, in the year 1508, to the convent at "Wittenberg." 
Here. Melanchthon tells us, he lectured at first on Aristotle's 
Dialectics and Physics, meanwhile pursuing his favourite study 
of theological books. 

Writing to his friend, Braun in March, 1509, Luther says, 
" If you wish to know my condition, I am well, through God's 
grace, except that I have to study violently, mainly in philoso- 
phy, which I would most gladly have exchanged from the 

6 « 



42 LUTHER GIVES LECTURES. 

beginning for theology — that theology, I mean, which seeks out 
the kernel from the nut, and the flour from the wheat, and the 
marrow from the bones. But God is God : man is often, nay 
always, deceived in his judgment. He is our God ; He will 
direct us with His loving-kindness, and for ever." 

Among the hearers, in the engraving, we see Metrichstadt, 
who was Rector of the University, and who. according to Mathe- 
sius, used to say, " This monk will puzzle all our doctors, and 
will bring in a new doctrine, and reform the whole Roman 
Church ; for he takes his stand on the writings of the prophets 
and the apostles, and on the word of Jesus Christ." 

By his side sits Staupitz, to whom Luther said, in 1523, 
"Through you the light of the Gospel first dawned out of the 
darkness on my heart. 7 ' 



XII. 



LUTHER PREACHES IN THE CONVENT CHAPEL. 



LUTHER was so strongly impressed with the awful responsi- 
bility of preaching — " of speaking to the people in God's 
stead " — that Staupitz had great difficulty in persuading him to 
mount the pulpit. The chapel is described by Myconius as very 
rude and mean, much like the representation which painters give 
of the stable at Bethlehem, where Christ was born. "In this 
poor chapel," he says, "God willed that His holy Gospel, and 
His dear child Jesus, should be honoured and manifested to the 
world. It was no minster, or grand high church, such as were 
to be found by thousands, that God chose for this purpose. 
Soon, however, this church became too small, and Luther was 
commanded to preach in the parish church, and thus the child 
Jesus, also, was carried to the Temple." 

Staupitz is represented sitting among the hearers. 

Of the matter of his early sermons, Luther says in his postil 
for the fourth Sunday in Advent : " This testimony of Christ the 



44 PEEACHES IN THE CONVENT CHAPEL. 

Devil will not hear, sets himself with all his might against it, 
and will not stop till he overthrows and extinguishes it. We 
men, too, are weak and perverse, and readier to draw nigh to 
any saint than to Christ. Under the papacy they preached about 
the worship of the saints, and that one should trust in their 
merits ; so, too, I myself believed and preached. St. Anne was 
my idol, and St. Thomas (Aquinas) my apostle, on whom I built 
my assurance. Others ran to St. James, and had a strong belief 
and firm confidence that, if they did so, they would attain every- 
thing they wished and hoped for ; so strongly disposed is man 
by nature to fall away from the testimony of John the Baptist 
concerning Christ." 

Luther's conviction of the paramount dignity and importance 
of preaching he expresses perpetually ; for instance, at the end 
of the Tract, On the Right of the Congregation to call and dis- 
miss the Teachers, " He who is entrusted with the office of 
preaching, has the highest office in Christendom. He may also 
baptize, say mass, and perform all pastoral functions ; or, if he 
does not choose this, he may confine himself to preaching alone, 
and leave baptizing and other minor offices to others, as Christ 
did, and Paul, and all the Apostles" (Acts vi.). 



XIII. 



LUTHER AT ROME. 



IN the year 1510, Luther went, partly in consequence of a vow, 
partly on some conventual business, to Rome. He went as 
an enthusiastic devotee ; but was greatly shocked by what he 
saw there, though the effects of it were not visible till some time 
after. 

In his Table-talk, c. lxxvii., he says: "I would not take 
100,000 florins not to have seen Rome ; although I do not yet 
thoroughly know its great and scandalous abominations. When 
I first saw it, I fell on the ground, lifted up my hands, and said, 
1 Hail, thou holy Rome ; yea, truly holy, through the holy mar- 
tyrs, and their blood that has been shed there V Had I not seen 
it, I should always have to fear that I was doing the Pope a 
wrong ; but that which we have seen, that we speak." 

In 1530, when dedicating his Exposition of the 117th Psalm 
to Hans von Sternberg, who had been a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, 
Luther says to him : ' ' Not that I despise such pilgrimages — for 



45 



46 LUTHER AT ROME. 

I would gladly take such a journey myself, and now that I can- 
not, I am fond of hearing and reading about them — but that we 
do not make such pilgrimages with a right purpose. As was my 
case at Rome, where I, too, was a mad saint, ran the round of 
all the churches and vaults, and believed every lie that was in- 
vented there. I have also said mass there half a score of times, 
and in those days was quite sad that my father and mother were 
still alive ; for I should have liked to have set them free from 
purgatory with my masses and other excellent works and prayers. 
There is at Rome a saying, ' Blessed is the mother whose son 
says mass on a Saturday at St. John's ;' how glad I should have 
been to have made my mother happy ! But there was too great 
a throng, and I could not get to it, and ate a red-herring instead. 
Well, then we did and knew no better, and the Romish See did 
not punish these current lies ; but now, God be praised, we have 
the Gospels, the Psalms, and other Holy Scriptures, in which we 
may make pilgrimages with profit and blessedness, and may visit 
and explore the true Promised Land, the true Jerusalem, yea. 
the true paradise and kingdom of heaven ; and walk about, not 
among the graves and bodily resting-places of the saints, but 
through their hearts, thoughts, and spirits.'' 

The state of Luther's mind at Rome is indicated by the story 
that when he was mounting the Santa Scala on his knees for the 
sake of obtaining the indulgence granted to those who did so, he 
seemed to hear a voice of thunder shouting in his ears, " The 
just shall live by faith." 

"What most shocked Luther at Rome was the infidelity of the 



LUTHER AT ROME. 47 

priests. " I have been at Rome, he says, in his Treatise against 
Private Masses, "have said many masses there, and saw many 
said, so that I shudder when I think of it. There I heard, among 
other coarse jests, courtiers laughing at table, and bragging that 
some said mass and repeated these words over the bread and 
wine : ' Panis es, panis manebis, vinum es, vinum manebis,' and 
so elevated it. Now, I was a young and right grave, pious 
monk, whom such words wounded, what could I think ? What 
could occur to me but such thoughts — if people here at Rome 
talk thus openly at table, what must it be if the Pope, cardinals, 
along with the courtiers, say mass in this way ? how must I have 
been cheated, who have heard them say mass so often ? And it 
disgusted me at the same time that they could say their mass so 
boldly and glibly and helter-skelter, as if it were a trick of jug- 
gling. For, before I got to the G-ospel, my fellow- priest had 
finished his mass, and they cried to me, ' Passa, passa — get on, 
come away.'" 



! 




XIV. 



LUTHER CREATED A DOCTOR. 



MATHESIUS writes, that " in the year 1512, his prior and 
superior, along with the convent, resolved that Brother 
Martin should become a Doctor in the Holy Scriptures. This 
resolution Staupitz laid before him at Wittenberg, under a tree 
in the convent which he himself once showed to me and others. 
But as Brother Martin humbly excused himself, and, among 
many other causes, finally urged that he was a weak and sickly 
brother, who had not long to live, and that they should look out 
some one stouter and healthier, Staupitz answered playfully, ' It 
seems as if our God would soon have a great deal to do in heaven 
and upon earth, therefore He will need to have many young and 
industrious doctors, through whom He may transact His affairs ; 
and whether you live or die, God wants you in His counsel. 
Therefore do what your convent imposes on you, as you are 
bound to obey it and me, according to your vow. 7 

11 Hereupon, Brother Martin was promoted to be a Doctor. 

» da 



50 LUTHER CREATED A DOCTOR. 

of Holy Scripture on St. Luke's Day, and openly swore a solemn 
oath on the Bible that he would study and preach it all his life, 
and would maintain the Christian faith in discourse and writing 
against all heretics, so help him God. This regular and public 
call, which he received from a University in the name of the Im- 
perial Majesty and of the See of Rome, according to the coun- 
sel and resolution of his teachers and spiritual superiors, and the 
solemn oath which he made to God on the Holy Bible and to the 
University of "Wittenberg, was often a source of comfort to him 
in times of great pressure and conflict, when the devil and the 
world were terrifying him with the thought who had given him 
command, and how he would answer for it that he had excited 
such trouble in the whole of Christendom. Then, I say, he 
called to mind his ordained doctorship, and his public calling, 
and his solemn oath, and was comforted ; whereupon he daunt- 
lessly carried on his own cause, or rather God's, in Christ's name, 
with honour, and with God's help nobly accomplished it." 

Carlstadt, as Dean of the Faculty, presides at the ceremony. 



XY. 



LUTHER ACTING AS VICAR-GENERAL OF THE AUGUSTINIAN ORDER IN THE 

ABSENCE OF STAUPITZ. 



IN the spring of 1515, Staupitz, being sent by the Elector to 
collect relics in the Netherlands for the new church of All 
Saints at Wittenberg, deputed Luther to discharge his functions 
as vicar-general during his absence, which seems to have lasted 
till late in the following year. In the first place, he enjoined 
Luther to make a visitation among the convents of his province 
in Misnia and Thuringia. " Therefore,' 7 says Mathesius, "Luther 
journeyed from one convent to another, helping to improve the 
state of the schools, and admonishing the brethren of his pro- 
vince to hold to the Bible, and withal to live in holiness, concord, 
and chastity." His letters show us the nature of his work and 
the spirit in which he fulfilled it. In Erfurt (where, eleven years 
before, he had put on the cowl and performed the meanest house- 
hold offices), he appointed as prior his friend and former tutor 
John Lange, "seeing that he was a good Greek and Latin 
scholar, but what is still more, an honest and worthy man." He 



52 LUTHER ACTING AS VICAR-GENERAL. 

exhorts Lange to hold out a helping hand to one of his monks 
who had fallen into sin. saying. " Be not angry that we have to 
suffer such a scandal. * * "VTe are called, and baptized, and com- 
manded to bear one another's burdens : * * and to cover the 
shame of our brother because Christ has covered ours. There- 
fore take heed to thyself, and be not so pure that thou wilt not 
touch the impure, or refusest to bear with, and screen and wash 
away their impurity/' On the other hand, he advises the 
Provost of Litzkau, notwithstanding the sense of his own sinful- 
ness, to enforce a merited punishment in the case of a fallen 
brother : " Thus in thy heart be humble and gentle towards him, 
but with thy hand and authority thou art bound to exercise seve- 
rity ; for the authority is not thine, but God's, while the humility 
is not God's, but thine." To the Prior of Xeustadt, who could 
not agree with his monks, he writes : " Thou art indeed seeking 
and striving after peace, but on a false way. for thou seekest 
such as the world gives and not Christ. He has not peace whom 
none molest, but he has peace whom all men and things disturb, 
and who yet bears it all calmly and cheerfully.*' As the dissen- 
sions continued, Luther saw it needful to remove the prior for 
peace' sake, but writes to the monks : "If you do not receive 
those who are set over you, as from God. with a spirit of prayer, 
I tell you beforehand, you will have no peace and good order, 
even though St. John the Baptist were your prior." 

In an oration which he sent to the Provost of Litzkau. and 
was probably intended to be delivered before the Lateran 
Council, he thus describes the state of the Church : "In these 



LUTHER ACTING AS VICAR-GENERAL. 53 

our clays, the whole ground is covered, nay, heaped up, with the 
rubbish of all manner of diverse doctrines ; together with such a 
multitude of precepts, human doctrines, and superstitious obser- 
vances, that the people are rather stupified than instructed, so 
that the Word of Truth can barely shine through ; nay, in many 
places, not a ray of it is visible.' 7 No wonder that we next find 
him in the character of a Reformer. 

In the autumn of 1516, the plague broke out in Wittenberg. 
Lange advised Luther to flee. He replied : " Whither shall I 
flee ? I hope the world will not fall to pieces if brother Martin 
fall. I will certainly, if the plague gain ground, send the brethren 
abroad in all directions ; but I have an office entrusted to 
me, and from obedience may not flee until the same obedience 
commands me to do so. It is not that I do not fear death (for I 
am not the Apostle Paul, but only his expounder) ; but I hope 
God will save me out of all my fear." The nature of his offices 
and occupations he thus describes in the same letter : "I have 
almost work enough for two secretaries. I do scarcely anything 
all day long but write letters. * * * I am preacher to the convent, 
reader at table ; I am wanted every day as parish priest and 
preacher ; I am director of the studies ; vicar-general, that is, 
eleven times prior ; counsel for the Herzbergers in Torgau ; lec- 
turer on St. Paul ; commentator on the Psalms ; besides that 
business of letter-writing which, as I said, takes up the greater 
part of my time ; and have, moreover, my own temptations from 
the flesh, the world, and the devil." 



i 



I 




XVI. 



BELOW, LUTHER IS SEEN REFUSING ABSOLUTION TO PENITENTS PRODUCING 
THEIR INDULGENCES ; AND IN THE CENTRE HE IS AFFIXING HIS NINETY- 
FIVE THESES TO THE CHURCH-DOOR OF WITTENBERG. ON THE LEFT, 
TETZEL IS DISFENSING HIS INDULGENCES AND BURNING LUTHER'S THESES; 
. WHILE ON THE RIGHT, THE STUDENTS OF WITTENBERG ARE BURNING 
TETZEL'S COUNTER-THESES. 



WHILE Luther was zealously fulfilling his pastoral and pro- 
fessional duties, he was suddenly met face to face by an 
evil which struck at the root of all godliness in the flock commit- 
ted to his charge. Pope Leo X., ostensibly to raise money for 
the building of St. Peter's, but really in order to maintain his cor- 
rupt court, had instituted a general sale of indulgences ; which 
were, as their name imports, a remission of the penances and 
good works enjoined as conditions of forgiveness, or a licence to 
receive absolution upon bare confession, unaccompanied by satis- 
faction. The sale of these indulgences in Germany was commit- 
ted to the Dominican monk Tetzel ; a man of loose life, reckless 
how religion and good morals might suffer, so long as he scraped 

55 



56 LUTHER'S NINETY-FIVE THESES. 

together money enough to please his masters and gratify himself, 
and who scrupled not at the most blasphemous inventions to 
exalt the value of his wares. When this man was preaching a 
few miles from Wittenberg, as we learn from Myconius, some of 
Luther's congregation came to him to confess, having bought 
these letters of indulgence. " And when they disclosed heinous 
crimes, and gave him to understand that they would not cease 
from their adultery, usury, fraud, and the like," the doctor would 
not absolve them ; whereupon they pleaded their papal indul- 
gence received from Tetzel. But Luther was not to be moved by 
this, appealing to that Scripture, " Except ye repent, ye shall all 
likewise perish." 

Luther thus relates the beginning of the contest in the tract 
against Hans Wurst : "'At that time I was a preacher in the 
convent here, and a young doctor fresh from the anvil, hot and 
ready in the Holy Scriptures. Now, when much people of Wit- 
tenberg were running after these indulgences to Juterbock, and I 
(as truly as I hope to be redeemed) did not even know what the 
indulgence was, I began to preach with great moderation that 
they might do something better and more certain than buying 
pardons. I had before preached such a sermon against indul- 
gences in the parish church, and earned little favour thereby with 
Duke Frederick, who was very fond of that church of his found- 
ing. ****** Meanwhile, it came to my ears how Tetzel had 
preached shocking, frightful doctrines ; to wit, that the red cross 
of the indulgence, with the Pope's arms set up in the churches, 
had as much virtue as the cross of Christ ; that he would not 



LUTHEK'S NINETY-FIVE THESES. 57 

change places with St. Peter in heaven, for he had saved more 
souls with his indulgences than St. Peter with his preaching ; 
that when one dropped a penny into the box for a soul in purga- 
tory, so soon as the money chinked in the chest the soul flew up 
into heaven ; * * * that repentance or sorrow or atonement for 
«in was needless for one who had bought an indulgence, which 
would hold good equally for future sins." 

Luther's first sermon against indulgences was preached on the 
tenth Sunday after Trinity, 1517, in commencing a course on the 
commandments, and was directed solely against the abuses com- 
mitted by the vendors thereof, which brought discredit on the 
Holy See no less than detriment to public morals ; but he did not 
attempt to impugn their efficacy when accompanied by sincere 
repentance. Before these sermons were concluded, Luther had 
seen enough of the iniquities of this traffic in sin to stir up his 
deepest indignation, and show him the duty of a public protest. 
Whereupon, seeing that no man of greater weight was willing to 
step forward and do battle for righteousness, he drew up 
"Ninety-five Propositions concerning the Power of Indul- 
gences," and without consulting any of his friends, affixed them 
to the door of the parish church of Wittenberg on the thirty-first 
of October. It was the eve of All Saints, the festival of the dedi- 
cation of the church, on which its rich store of indulgences was 
distributed to the crowds who poured into the town from all 
parts. In the superscription to the Theses, Luther invited all 
present, or absent, to dispute on them by word of mouth or in 

writing. The same day he committed them to the press, and 

8 



58 



LUTHEK'S NINETY-FIVE THESES, 



sent off copies to the Elector- Archbishop of Mayence, and his 
own diocesan, the Bishop of Brandenburg, with letters entreating 
their interference in the matter. His call to the scholars and 
people of Germany echoed more widely than Luther expected or 
desired ; but his appeal to the dignitaries of the church was 
fruitless. The Archbishop of Mayence was a partaker in the 
profits of the indulgences ; the Bishop of Brandenburg dispatched 
an abbot to Luther to express sympathy with his views while 
conjuring him to keep silence for peace 7 sake. Luther promised 
to obey ; but within a fortnight from their publication, says 
Myconius, " The Theses had traversed all Germany, and in a 
month were spread throughout Christendom, as if the angels 
themselves had borne them unto the eyes of all men. No 
one would believe what a talk they made. They were soon 
turned into German, and found universal acceptance, save in 
the eyes of the Dominicans and the Bishop of Halle, with some 
others who enjoyed the fat pastures obtained by the Pope's 
exactions." 

Of his own feelings at this time Luther thus speaks, when 
reprinting the Theses many years after : ' 1 1 entered on this affair 
with great fear and trembling. I was alone, and had entangled 
myself in the contest without forethought ; and on many and 
weighty points I gave way to the Pope, not only because I could 
not draw back, but because I sincerely and earnestly worshipped 
him from the bottom of my soul. * * For who was I, a mean, 
despised monk, at that time, too, looking more like a corpse than 
a man, that I should set myself against the Pope's majesty, 



LUTHER'S NINETY-FIVE THESES. 59 

before whom not only kings and the whole earth, but even heaven 
and hell bow down, and are constrained to obey his nod. How 
and what my heart suffered and underwent those first two years, 
and in what a sense of unworthiness (not false and affected, but 
true and sincere), nay, in what sheer despair I was plunged, is 
little conceived by those who have since assailed the Pope's ma- 
jesty with great pride and arrogance. But I, alone in the breach, 
was none so joyous and sure of my cause." 

Tetzel answered the publication of the Theses by a set of 
Counter-Theses, drawn up by Dr. Wimpina of Frankfort, in 
which he rather sought to crush Luther by the imputation of 
heresy than attempted to refute him. He, moreover, had a bon- 
fire lighted in one of the public places of Frankfort, to which he 
walked in procession in the robes of an inquisitor, and after 
preaching a furious sermon against the heretic Luther, cast his 
Theses and Sermons into the flames in default of the man himself. 
A messenger who had been sent by him with an edition of his 
Counter-Theses to "Wittenberg, was caught by the students ; who 
having bought some, laid hands on the rest and burnt them, after 
having sent a crier round the town to proclaim that all who 
wished to witness the burning of Tetzel's Theses should assemble 
in the market-place at two o'clock. This act was done without 
the knowledge of any of the professors or authorities, and greatly 
displeased Luther, who foresaw that though he had no hand in 
it, the whole blame of lawless violence would be laid at his 
door. 

These two conflagrations form the subject of the engravings 



60 LUTHEK'S NINETY-FIVE THESES. 

on either side of the principal picture before us. The swan seen 
above is an allusion to the dying prophecy of Huss : " To-day 
you burn a goose ; a hundred years hence a swan shall arise 
whom you will not be able to burn." 



/ 



XVII 



LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE GAETAN 



UTHER'S Theses raised him up many adversaries, and within 
-" a few months he had to write in his own defence against 
Sylvester Prierias, the general of the Dominicans, and censor of 
the press at Rome, who justified the most revolting of Tetzel's 
assertions, and the most extravagant of the papal pretensions ; 
against Hochstratten, a professor at Cologne, and head inquisitor 
for Germany, who clamoured for the heretic to be committed to 
the flames ; and against Eck, a theological professor at Ingolstadt 
and an accomplished schoolman, between whom and Luther 
there had recently sprug up a warm friendship. To explain and 
defend his Theses from misconstruction, Luther drew up a series 
of Solutions of them, which he sent to Leo X., with a letter, not 
only expressing his evidently sincere personal veneration for the 
Pontiff, but also declaring his readiness to submit implicitly to 
the Pope's decree. Meanwhile, Leo had been induced by the 
outcries of Luther's enemies to institute a tribunal, under 



62 LUTHEK BEFOEE THE LEGATE GAETAN. 

Sylvester Prierias, to try his doctrines ; and, two days after Lu- 
ther had dispatched his humble letter, he was startled by receiv- 
ing a summons to appear within sixty days at Rome to answer 
for his Theses, before a court presided over by his declared and 
virulent foe. Knowing that his fate was certain should he ap- 
pear, the University interceded with the Pope in his behalf, 
while Luther besought the Elector to endeavour to get him heard 
in Germany rather than in Rome. Under Frederick's influence, 
the Pope consented • and agreed that Luther should appear be- 
fore his Legate Gaetan, then present at the Imperial Diet sitting 
at Augsburg. To Gaetan, however, the Pope had secretly dis- 
patched a brief, in which, though the sixty days had not expired, 
he treats Luther as a notorious heretic, whom Gaetan was 
ordered to excommunicate, together with all who should afford 
him protection, unless he should unconditionally recant his errors. 
Though this letter was not made known till afterwards, Luther's 
friends apprehended danger, and earnestly besought him not to 
quit his secure abode at Wittenberg ; but confident in the justice 
of his cause, he determined to proceed to Augsburg, and having 
accomplished his journey in spite of a severe illness, arrived on 
the Tth of October, 1518. 

With a real or apparent kindness, forming a strong contrast 
to the commission which he bore, the Legate immediately sent 
his chaplain to Luther, who represented in glowing terms the 
friendly sentiments with which Gaetan was filled towards him. 
and counselled him to throw himself at his feet without delay, 
trusting to his fatherly goodness. Luther's friends.' however. 



/ 



LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE GAETAN. 63 

mistrusting the Italians, insisted on his waiting till a safe-conduct 
should be procured from the Emperor. It arrived in a few days, 
and Luther presented himself. Yet the fate of Huss, when simi- 
larly protected, could not be forgotten ; and Luther writes to 
Melanchthon, " I am about to offer myself up for your sake and 
for that of my countrymen." Gaetan, who could see better on 
the spot than Leo at a distance, how dangerous a flame would be 
enkindled in Germany if Luther were touched, probably wished 
in all sincerity to conciliate matters. At all events, he received 
Luther with great courtesy and seeming friendliness, and summed 
up that which he was required to retract in the two articles — 
1. That the treasure of the indulgence did not consist of the 
merits and sufferings of Christ. 2. That faith in the partaker 
was needful to the efficacy of the sacraments. Luther threw him- 
self at the Legate's feet, and declared himself ready to recant if 
he could be proved to be in error from Scripture or the Fathers. 
G-aetan demanded a simple recantation, refusing to dispute when 
he came only to instruct, yet inadvertently suffered himself to 
enter into an argument in which he proved no match for his 
opponent, was foiled, and forgot his dignity in his anger. The 
interview was three times resumed ; but at last, when Luther 
confuted the Legate by the very papal Constitutions on which he 
rested his case, and whose authority Luther disputed, G-aetan 
bade him once more to recant, or begone from his presence and 
never more appear. 

Luther retired in silence. He, however, sent a very humble 
letter to the Cardinal, begging to be convinced of his error by 



64 LUTHER BEFOEE THE LEGATE GAETAN. 

clear proof, acknowledging that he had often expressed himself 
with undue vehemence, and promising amendment, &c. No an- 
swer arriving within three days, he and his friends became, with 
justice, alarmed for his safety. He therefore drew up two let- 
ters, one to Graetan, the other to the Pope, indignantly spurning 
the imputation of heresy, and appealing " from Leo ill informed 
to Leo better informed ;." and then, having procured a horse and 
guide, fled from Augsburg by night, and travelled with all speed 
to Wittenberg. Two days after, his appeal to the Pope was 
posted up on the doors of Augsburg Cathedral by some of the 
authorities of the place. Having on his way back learnt the con- 
tents of the Pope's letter to Gaetan, which were now made pub- 
lic, as there was no longer any object in concealing them, and 
fearing to involve his sovereign in difficulties, he wrote to the 
Elector, intimating his purpose of retiring into France. But the 
Elector, doubtless unwilling to lose so distinguished an ornament 
of his University, begged him to wait awhile, and the University 
opposed his project most earnestly ; and therefore for the pre- 
sent he resumed his ordinary functions with redoubled energy, 
writing to Link, "We are all as busy here as so many ants." 



/v 







XTIII. 



LFTnER'S DISPUTATION WITH ECK 



WE have seen Luther upholding the fundamental principles 
of Christian morals and spiritual religion in defiance of the 
impersonation of hierarchical power in Graetan ; he was next called 
to maintain the groundwork of free Christian thought against the 
representative of the Schoolmen. 

Dr. John Mayer, of Eck, professor of theology in the Univer- 
sity of Ingolstadt, was one of the most eminent scholars and dis- 
putants of Germany at this time. His fame had spread into 
foreign countries, and he had travelled into Italy to sustain scho- 
lastic theses, where his success had earned him a brilliant repu- 
tation. Notwithstanding his former attack upon Luther, he had 
met him as a friend at Augsburg, and, with Luther's concur- 
rence, proposed to hold a disputation with Carlstadt at Leipsic 
on the freedom of the will. When, however, Eck published to 
the world the list of the theses which he proposed to defend, it 
was clear that they were directed rather against Luther than" 

9 65 



66 LUTHEE'S DISPUTATION WITH ECK. 

Carlstadt, and therefore Luther felt bound to take part in the 
contest. It commenced on the 17th of June, 1519, in the pre- 
sence of the sovereign, Duke George of Saxony, who had insisted 
on the disputation taking place, in spite of the opposition of the 
bishop and the heads of the university. The disputation opened 
between Carlstadt and Eck on the doctrines of grace, and was 
carried on for some da}^s with no signal results. The dispute 
with Luther which followed, turned on the origin of the Pope's 
supremacy, purgatory, indulgences, and the nature of repentance, 
satisfaction, and absolution. Eck rested the supremacy of the 
Pope on the famous passage in Matt. xvi. 18, "Thou art Peter, 
and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against it." Luther, while by no means denying 
the actual sepremacy of the Pope, declared the doctrine now pro- 
pounded concerning its origin to be of modern invention, and 
never received by the whole of Christendom, but only by the 
Latin Church. With regard to the passage in Matt, xvi., he 
maintained the interpretation now general among Protestants, 
and given long before his clay by some ecclesiastical authorities, 
justifying it by the texts which speak of Christ as the sole Head 
of His Church, and by the facts of church history. Thus the 
Pope's headship became a mere question of ecclesiastical organ- 
ization, though, in that point of view, Luther at this time still 
strenuously maintained its importance. It proves how wide an 
influence Luther's doctrines must have obtained, that on the ques- 
tion of indulgences, his opponent conceded nearly all the import- 
ant points for which Luther contended. 



LUTHER'S DISPUTATION WITH ECK. 67 

Eck, finding himself likely to be outshone in learning and 
worsted in debate, endeavoured to throw suspicion on Luther, 
by showing his agreement on some points with the abhorred 
Hussites — an artifice which Luther indignantly exposed, while he, 
however, asserted that among the articles of Huss some were un- 
doubtedly true and Christian, and the Council had not intended 
to condemn such, but only those which were erroneous. Eck 
replied that all were rejected and condemned, adding, ''Reverend 
father, if you believe that a council can err, you are to me as a 
heathen man and a publican !" 

The victory in this contest was, as usual, claimed by both 
sides. The questions were referred to the universities of Wit- 
tenberg and Ingolstadt for decision, but the controversy was 
vigorously carried on in writing, and new combatants joined in 
the strife. "But," says Mathesius, "as the scholastic theology 
and philosophy had already been overthrown by (rod's Word, so 
now the greatness of the Pope, together with that of his decre- 
tals and bulls, began to wane from the time of the Leipsic dispu- 
tation/'' 

Notwithstanding polemics, Luther found time to write vari- 
ous works of edification during this and the following year. 
Thus, immediately after his return to "Wittenberg in September, 
he published what is esteemed by many the most profound and 
valuable of his works, the "Exposition of the Epistle to the Ga- 
latians ;" and in the same month wrote his i; Tessaradecas Con- 
solatoria," or " Consolations under all the Crosses that befall 
every Christian Man," addressed to the Elector when suffering 



68 LUTHER'S DISPUTATION WITH ECK. 

under a severe illness. In the course of this year appeared also 
his u Commentary on the first twenty-two Psalms," and a num- 
ber of tracts suited to the various emergencies of the Christian 
life. In March, 1520, he published his " Essay on Confession" 
and " Sermon on Good Works," and, a little later, a " Devotional 
Manual of Meditations on the Lord's Prayer, Creed, and Ten 
Commandments," besides composing a number of his " Postils." 



iO 




XIX. 



LUTHER BURNING THE POPE'S BULL. 



UP to this time, Luther had been engaged in combating the 
abuses of the papal system, in the vain hope that the heads 
of the Church might be brought to recognize the necessity of a 
reform ; but his dispute with Eck had forced him to set foot in a 
new field of thought, while the obstinate persistence of the court 
of Rome in treating questions of truth or error, on which hung 
the salvation of men's souls, as a mere struggle for revenue and 
worldly power, left him no choice but either to crush out his 
conscience and reason, or else to follow them, and them alone, 
to whatever unforeseen lengths this resolve might lead him. 
The result Mathesius thus gives us : ' ! But Luther, who hitherto 
had only disputed and thrown out questions touching the Pope's 
supremacy, which he would gladly have upheld and helped to 
fortify, now came to a clear persuasion from the Word of Godj 
that the Pope of Rome, whom heretofore all men had taken to 
be a. god upon earth, and most holy, was surely the adversary 



70 LUTHER BURNING THE POPE'S BULL. 

of God and Jesus Christ ; for that he lifted himself up above our 
Lord Jesus Christ, corrupted the true worship of God, and 
brought great error and harm on all Christendom." 

Meantime, a last fruitless attempt at reconciliation had been 
made, rather by the Nuncio Miltitz himself, than by those who 
sent him, armed with seventy briefs, to take Luther prisoner and 
bring him to Rome. Miltitz was a German, and saw that no 
less was at stake than the Church's grasp of Germany, if Luther 
was dealt harshly with. Both he and Luther would fain have 
averted such a rending asunder of Christendom ; but neither 
could have entertained much hope of success when they looked 
at the spirit prevailing in Germany and in Rome. For, while 
Miltitz was heaping disgrace on Tetzel and courtesy on Luther, 
Eck was working busily at Rome to procure the ruin of his hated 
rival ; and on the 15th of June, 1520, a Bull of Excommunica- 
tion against Luther and his adherents was drawn up by the Pope 
and College of Cardinals, with the publication of which Eck was 
entrusted. 

The negotiations with Miltitz had not hindered the course of 
Luther's thoughts or pen. In June, he put forth his famous 
' ' Address to the Christian Nobles of Germany, on the Improve- 
ment of the Christian Condition." This was in truth an appeal 
to the laity against the whole hierarchical system, in which, start- 
ing from the great principle that "all baptized Christians are 
truly priests, there is no difference but that of office between 
them-," he asserts the independence and divine origin of the 
secular power, and the right of all Christians to interpret the 



LUTHER BURNING THE POPE'S BULL. 71 

Scriptures or to convoke a council. This work was followed by 
his essay " On the Babylonish Captivity of the Church/' in which 
he attacked the doctrine of the seven sacraments ; and his " Ser- 
mon on the Liberty of a Christian Man," proclaiming in its fullest 
form the doctrine of justification by faith alone. These three 
books may be said to contain the kernel of the whole Reforma- 
tion, and the enthusiasm with which they were received showed 
that Germany was ripe for the approaching transition. The 
famous Franz von Sickingen offered him an asylum if violence 
should threaten ; and Sylvester von Schaumburg writes to him 
in June not to flee into Bohemia if the Elector should forsake 
him, " for I and some hundred more noblemen will stand by you 
faithfully, and protect you from peril at the hand of your ene- 
mies, so long as the righteousness of your cause has not been 
refuted in a universal Christian assembly." 

Eck chose Leipsic, where he had Duke George and the uni- 
versity on his side, as the most favourable place for the first pro- 
mulgation of the Pope's Bull ; but it was instantly torn down by 
the students, who insulted Eck so much, that in fear of his life 
he fled to Erfurt. Here the students, seizing the Bull, threw it 
into the river, saying, "Bulla est, in aquam natet" — "It is a V 

bubble, let it swim." To bring it to "Wittenberg was felt to be 
so dangerous an undertaking, that the Elector of Brandenburg, 
with the Bishop and the Duke of Mecklenburgh, came in person 
to proclaim it. Yet even they had to desist from the enterprise, 
for the municipal authorities declared that they would resist its 
publication by force if needful. When, however, news reached 



72 LUTHEK BURNING TEE POPE'S BULL. 

Wittenberg that in virtue of it Luther's writings had been burnt 
at Mayence, Louvain, Cologne, and other cities, Luther retalia- 
ted by convening a meeting of the doctors, students, and citizens 
on the 10th of December, at the Elster Gate ; where, a fire of 
wood having been kindled by a master of arts, Luther cast into 
the flames the whole of the decretals and canon law, with the 
writings of Eck and Ernser, and last of all the Bull, exclaiming, 
11 Because thou hast troubled the Holy One of the Lord, so be 
thou troubled and consumed by the fire everlasting ;" and then 
returned in procession into the town. 

The next day, at the close of his ordinary college lecture, he 
solemnly warned his hearers to beware of the Pope's laws and 
statutes ; that the decretals had been burnt was nothing, the real 
thing needful was, that they should set themselves against the 
Pope's wicked and antichristian domination with all their hearts, 
as they valued their eternal salvation. 

Shortly afterwards he published a justification of this act, in 
which he extracted thirty propositions for condemnation from the 
canon law and papal decrees : such as, " The Pope is not subject 
to God's commandments, nor bound to obey them ;" "It is not 
a precept, but a counsel, when St. Peter tells Christians to be 
subject to kings ;"• " The Pope is not bound to obey the decrees 
of Christian councils," &c. 



XX. 



LUTHER'S ENTRANCE INTO WORMS, 



AFTER a few months of unremitting labour at his writings, 
- carried on with the more energy because he " believed that 
the Papists would never rest till they had his blood, and the time 
left for him to work might be short," Luther was called to an- 
swer for his doctrines before the highest earthly tribunal — the 
assembled Diet of the Emperor and Estates. 

The youthful Emperor, Charles Y., who had ascended the 
throne in June, 1520, had been repeatedly besought by the papal 
nuncio Aleander, to cause Luther's books to be burnt through- 
out the empire ; but, on the other hand, the Elector of Saxony, 
to whom Charles mainly owed his crown, had begged that no 
steps might be taken against Luther until he should have been 
heard publicly in his own defence. Some correspondence ensued 
between the Emperor and Elector as to whether or not Luther 
should be cited before the Diet. Luther himself desired such an 
opportunity of bearing witness to the truth before the whole 

10 73 



74 LUTHER'S ENTRANCE INTO WORMS. 

world, and writes to Spalatin, on first hearing of the proposal, 
(No. 277), "If I should be summoned, so far as it depends on 
me, I will be carried thither sick if I cannot go sound ; for I can- 
not doubt that the Lord calls me, if the Emperor does so. And 
then, if violence be used, as is probable (for assuredly they will 
not summon me with the idea of bringing me to a better mind), 
we must commend the matter to the Lord. He liveth and reign- 
eth yet, who preserved the three men in the fiery furnace of the 
king of Babylon. And if He do not choose to preserve my head, 
what is that worth compared to Christ's, who was slain with such 
great ignominy and shame, to the offence of all and the de- 
struction of many. * * * Expect everything from me but flight 
or recantation. I will not even fly, much less recant. So help 
me the Lord Jesus ! Amen." 

But the papal party had no wish that Luther should gain in- 
creased notoriety by appearing before the Diet ; their object was 
to get him condemned unheard, And to this end, Aleander 
made a skillful and eloquent oration of three hours before the 
Diet, recounting Luther's heresies and acts of disobedience, and 
entreating for an immediate sentence to be passed. The Empe- 
ror was moved so far as to issue an edict for the destruction of 
Luther's books ; but the Estates refused to publish it unless Lu- 
ther were first summoned under a safe-conduct to appear before 
them, and then' called upon to retract whatever he might have 
written contrary to the holy Christian faith as received from 
the Fathers. If he refused to do this, then they would assist the 
Emperor to enforce the edict ; but meanwhile they prayed that 



LUTHER'S ENTRANCE INTO WORMS. 75 

the abuses which had been perpetrated in Germany by the papal 
court should be duly and fully redressed. To this counsel the 
Emperor acceded as far as regarded Luther, and ordered the no- 
bles to draw up a statement of the grievances complained of. 

Luther began his journey on the 2d of April, 1521, his con- 
veyance being provided by the town council of Wittenberg. As 
he went along, his progress resembled a triumph ; from some of 
the towns the people coming out as far as two miles to meet him. 
But he also encountered the imperial messengers sent to post up 
the edict for the burning of his books, and on this the herald 
sent to conduct him asked him if he would venture further. 
" Yes," he replied, ' ; if they publish the ban in every town, I will 
go on, trusting in the Emperor's safe-conduct.' 7 In Erfurt, Go- 
tha, and Eisenach he preached, and in Heidelberg held a public 
discussion. From place to place his friends and adherents warned 
him of the fate of Huss at Constance ; but he only answered, 
" And though they made a fire from "Wittenberg to Worms, and 
the flame thereof blazed up to heaven, inasmuch as I have been 
cited, I will appear in the name of the Lord, and step into the 
jaws of behemoth, between his great teeth, and confess Christ, 
and let him judge." 

When the popish party at Worms heard that Luther had 
obeyed the call and was on his way, they began to tremble, for 
they saw that it would greatly further his cause if he were allowed 
a public hearing ; but they had hoped that he would have been 
frightened into disobedience by the example of Huss, and might 
then have been condemned for contumacy. Glapio, the Emperor's 



76 LUTHER'S ENTRANCE INTO WORMS. 

confessor, wrote in most friendly terms, offering to meet him a 
short distance from Worms and negotiate with him secretly, hoping 
in reality thus to delay him beyond the term specified in the safe- 
conduct. Some argued the justifiableness of breaking a safe-con- 
duct in such a case ; but this proposal was indignantly rejected, 
even by Luther's worst enemies among the German Princes. 
His friends, in their terror, joined with his foes in endeavouring 
to dissuade him from proceeding ; on which he returned the me- 
morable speech, " If there were as many devils at Worms as 
there are tiles upon the roofs, I would go nevertheless." 

On the 16th of April he entered Worms, accompanied by five 
of his friends, and numbers of the Saxon noblemen who had gone 
out on horseback to meet him and escort him into the city. The 
streets were so crowded in expectation of his coming, that he had 
to be conducted through back lanes to his inn ; yet here the peo- 
ple followed, filling the windows and standing on the roofs to 
catch a glimpse of him. More than 2000 people followed him in 
procession to his inn, the Deutscher Hof ; and his room was filled 
till late at night with the nobles, and even clergy, who came to 
visit him. Among these was the Landgrave, Philip of Hesse, 
from this time one of his most faithful adherents, who, pressing 
his hand at parting said, V If you have right on your side, Doc- 
tor, may God be with you !'" 



XXI. 



ABOVE, LUTHER IS SEEN PREPARING HIMSELF BY PRAYER TO APPEAR 
BEFORE THE EMPEROR AND DIET. BELOW, HE IS STANDING WITH 
FRUNDSBERG AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE HALL. 



WHEN" the tumult had ceased at last, and silence reigned 
over the sleeping city, Luther began to collect his thoughts 
and seek for strength for the morrow's crisis. His friends have 
preserved for us snatches overheard from the prayers poured 
forth in the struggle of that memorable night. 

" almighty and everlasting God, how strong is the world ; 
how little do men put their trust in Thee ! How weak and 
shrinking is the flesh, and how mighty and busy is the devil 
through his apostles and the wise of this world ! * * * If I turn 
my eyes to the world, all is over with me ; for the die is cast, 
and my condemnation is pronounced. God ! God ! Thou 
my God ! Thou my God ! stand by me against all the world's 
reason and wisdom. For thou must do it, Thou alone ! It is not 
my cause, but thine own. For I have no controversy to main- 
tain with these great ones of the earth. I could fain live out my 



77 



78 LUTHER AND FRUNDSBERG. 

days in quietness, without struggle and perplexity. But thine is 
the cause, Lord, and it is righteous and eternal. Therefore 
stand by me, Thou righteous and eternal God. I put not my 
trust in any man. That were indeed in vain ; for all that is of 
flesh faileth. * * * 

" God ! God ! Dost thou not hear me, my God ! Art 
Thou dead ? No, thou canst not die, Thou only hidest thy face. 

tell me, hast Thou not chosen me for this work ? I know that 
thou hast. Then see Thou to it, God ! * * * Be Thou upon 
my side, God ! for the name of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, who 
is my defence and shield, yea, my strong fortress. * * * Lord, 
why dost Thou tarry ? My God, where art Thou ? Come ! come ! 

1 am ready to yield up my life patient as a lamb. * * * And 
though my body, which is the work of thy hands, should perish, 
yea be torn in pieces (if I have but thy Word and Spirit with 
me, and the body alone is touched), my soul is thine, and belongs 
to Thee, and shall abide with Thee for ever and ever ! Amen ! 
God help me ! Amen." 

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Luther was summoned by 
the herald, Caspar Sturm, to follow him to the Diet. As he was 
about to enter the assembly, George von Frundsberg, a soldier 
of distinction, laid his hand on Luther's shoulder, saying, u My 
poor monk ! my poor monk ! thou art marching to make a stand, 
the like of which I, and many a general, in our gravest battles 
have never made. But if thou hast right on thy side, and art 
sure of thy cause, be of good courage. God will not forsake 
thee." 



22. 




XXII. 



LUTHER BEFORE THE DIET OF WORMS 



THE moment had arrived which was to decide not Luther's 
fate alone, but the progressive revival or decay of the Church 
of Christ ; and Luther entered the assembly, consisting of the 
Emperor and six electors, the sovereign princes of Germany, the 
knights of the empire, and delegates from the cities. In the 
engraving, Frederick of Saxony is seen on the Emperor's 
right hand, foremost among the electors ; opposite him, on the 
prince's bench, sits the Landgrave Philip of Hesse ; in the 
background, close to the Emperor, Aleander is sitting with the 
Pope's Bull in his hand. Behind Luther, stands his friend Je- 
rome Schurff, who had accompanied him to render him legal 
assistance. 

The Emperor's orator then called upon Luther to declare, 
first, whether he acknowledged the books, published in his name, 
to be his ; secondly, whether, if so, he were willing to retract 
them. To the first question Luther replied in the affirmative ; 
but asked for a day's delay to consider and frame an answer to 
the second. His request was granted, and he was reconducted 
to his inn. Before the assembly his manner was so modest, and 



n$ 



80 LUTHER BEFORE THE DIET OF WORMS. 

his voice so low and hesitating, that his enemies fancied him 
overawed at last and about to retract, or at least to temporize. 
The next day, however, undeceived them. All signs of timidity 
or hesitation were gone, and he justified his refusal to retract 
any tittle, unless confuted by Scripture, in a speech two hours 
long, which he afterwards, by the Emperor's desire, repeated in 
Latin ; concluding with an earnest appeal to the Emperor and 
Estates to have regard to the evil plight of the Church, and 
" take these weighty matters in hand, lest God should pour out 
the vials of His wrath over the Roman empire and German 
nation, if haply they should be found condemning God's Word." 
Being again called on to give a direct answer yea or no, whether 
he would retract, he replied: "Unless I be convicted of error 
by the Holy Scriptures or by cogent and evident reasons * * * I 
neither can nor dare retract anything ; for my conscience is held 
captive by God's Word, and it is neither safe nor right to go 
against conscience. Here I take my stand. I can do no other- 
wise. So help me God !" 

On the following day the Emperor brought forward a pro- 
jDOsal for his immediate condemnation as an avowed heretic ; 
but the Estates desired time for deliberation. Meanwhile, the 
Archbishop of Treves, who was to some extent favourably dis- 
posed towards Luther, entered into private negotiations with 
him ; which, however, came to nothing, as Luther persisted in 
refusing to abide by the decision of any tribunal whatsoever, 
except in so far as it rested on Scripture. On this he re- 
ceived his safe-conduct, and left Worms on the twenty-sixth of 
April. 



XXIII. 



LUTHER TAKEN PRISONER ON HIS RETURN, 



LUTHER'S sovereign, the Elector Frederick, who desired to 
protect him without coming into collision with the Emperor, 
hit upon the plan of concealing him for a time, and therefore 
wrote privately to two noblemen of his subjects to take Luther 
prisoner on his way back, and put him in security. Some hint 
of his intention seems to have been given to Luther beforehand, 
for he writes to his friend the artist Lucas Cranach at Witten- 
berg, under date of Frankfort, 28 th of April : "I am going to 
be placed in concealment ; where, I know not myself. For 
though I had rather have suffered death from the tyrants (spe- 
cially from the hand of the furious Duke George of Saxony), I 
must not slight the counsel of good people. * * * For awhile, 
then, we must be silent and endure. Christ says, ' A little while 
and ye shall not see me, and again a little while and ye shall see 
me. 7 I trust it will be so with me now. But God's will, which is 
ever the best, be done in this, as in heaven and on earth. 
Amen." 

Luther thus relates the manner of his capture to Spalatin 

11 



82 LUTHEE TAKEN PRISONER ON HIS RETURN.. 

(No. 319). After saying how he had been received with great 
honour at Hirschfield and Eisenach, and constrained to preach, 
he continues, " When we entered Eisenach in the evening, num- 
bers came out on foot to meet us. At daybreak next morning 
Jerome [Schurff] and my other companions departed from me, 
and I went across the forest to visit my relations who live in that 
neighbourhood. After I had taken leave of them, and was on 
my way to Waltershausen, just as we had passed the Castle of 
Altenstein, I was taken prisoner. AmsdorfF knew, as was neces- 
sary, that I was to be arrested somewhere, but did not know the 
place of my captivity. My brother, seeing the horsemen ap- 
proaching, leaped from the carriage, and I understand reached 
Waltershausen the same evening without hindrance. Here I am, 
therefore, having thrown off my own garb and put on that of an 
equerry ; and I am also allowing my hair and beard to grow, 
so that you would hardly know me ; indeed I hardly know 
myself. " 

The castle of Wartburg, where Luther was confined, was situ- 
ated on the top of a lofty hill near Eisenach, overlooking the 
dense Thuringian forest and the scenes where he had passed 
some of his childish years. 

His sudden disappearance gave rise to all manner of rumours. 
He says himself, in the letter already quoted, "Various reports 
are current about me ; the prevailing opinion seems to be that I 
have been carried off by friends sent from France." It was at 
first feared that he had been privately assassinated by the papal 
party ; a conjecture which, according to Pallavicini, put the 
legates at Worms in danger of their lives. 



XXIV, 



LUTHER TRANSLATING THE BIBLE AT WARTBURG. 



MATHESIUS tells us that " while Luther was kept in great 
secrecy in the Wartburg he was noways idle, but continued 
daily in study and prayer, and took in hand the Greek and He- 
brew Bible, and wrote many excellent and consolatory letters to 
his loving friends. * : * But seeing that the power of the Word 
of God cannot be known without the cross, * * God sends our 
hermit divers crosses ; * * for he is overtaken by a painful and 
dangerous sickness, insomuch that he well nigh despaired .of life. 
Moreover, the devil torments him with heavy thoughts, and tries 
to befool him with all manner of strange sights and sounds." 

Luther began his translation of the Bible without any help, 
having no books with him but his Hebrew and Greek Testaments. 
He completed the New Testament during his nine months 7 
sojourn on the Wartburg, and also wrote within this period many 
of his Postils on the Epistles and Gospels, together with his 
Commentaries on the "Magnificat" and the 69th Psalm. But 



84 LUTHER TRANSLATING THE BIBLE. 

he was again called away from these simple works of piety, to 
contend for the truth of his doctrines against Catharinus of Sienna 
on the Infallibility of the Church, and Latomus of Louvaine (the 
first who grappled with him by Scriptural arguments) on Justifi- 
cation by Faith. Besides these, he wrote three other treatises : 
the first, " On Private Confession/ 7 which he maintained should 
be left to the free choice of Christians, not imposed by the 
Church : the second, on " The Abuse of Private Masses," dedi- 
cated to his brother Augustinians of Wittenberg, who had already 
ceased to celebrate them, in which he denied the sacrificial cha- 
racter of the mass ; the third was on Monastic Yows, in which he 
discusses " not, whether vows must be kept, for that the Word 
of God declares, but what vows are valid," and maintains that 
the vow made in baptism, being necessarily the most binding, re- 
leases from all subsequent vows which are inconsistent with its 
own observance. " The book" (we are told by Mathesius) "gave 
rest to many anguished consciences, who were convinced of the 
sinfulness of their vows, but also was taken advantage of by 
many, who, having entered a convent for the sake of an easy and 
luxurious life, left it again, and scandalously abused their Chris- 
tian liberty." This work Luther dedicated to his father, as an 
act of atonement for the disobedience of which he had been 
guilty in taking the cowl against his parent's will. 



£$. 




XXV. 



BELOW, LUTHER IS RIDING AWAY FROM THE WARTBURG. ABOVE, TO THE 
LEFT, LUTHER AND THE SWISS STUDENTS IN THE BLACK BEAR AT JENA ; 
TO THE RIGHT, LUTHER, AMIDST HIS FRIENDS AT WITTENBERG, RECOG- 
NIZED BY THE SAME STUDENTS.. 



WHILE thus working in his solitude at Wartburg, Luther 
was deeply grieved to hear that disturbances had broken 
out among his flock at Wittenberg. His friend Carlstadt, with 
some fanatics from Zwickau, had begun to inveigh against human 
learning, human titles of distinction, and the use of images and 
other outward aids to devotion ; the consequence of which was, 
that outrages were committed on those who kept to the old forms 
of worship, churches were desecrated, students forsook the uni- 
versity to learn handicrafts, and illiterate men gave themselves 
out as prophets raised above obedience to human authorities or 
even to Scripture. The Reformation was in danger of perishing 
through the excesses of those who belonged to it in letter and 
not in spirit. Melanchthon was unable to stem the torrent of 
innovation, yet the Elector refused to permit Luther to be sent 
for, fearing that his life would be claimed by the Papists. On 



85 



86 LUTHER'S RETURN TO WITTENBERG. 

this, Luther determined to go back at all risks, and strive to put 
a stop to the mischief, having first written to the Elector, pub- 
licly declaring that he returned in spite of him, not under his 
protection, in order that the Romanists might have no pretext 
for attacking the prince on his account. 

The engraving represents a scene which took place on the 
way in an inn at Jena, where Luther met with two Swiss stu- 
dents, who were travelling from their native land to Wittenberg, 
to inquire into the new doctrines. One of them, Kepler, thus 
describes the incident : "In the parlour we found a man sitting 
alone by the table, with a little book lying before him, who 
greeted us courteously, bade us to seat ourselves at the table with 
him, and offered us something to drink, to which we could not 
say him nay. * * * * We supposed, however, nothing else but 
that it was a knight who sat before us, dressed after the fashion 
of that country, in a red bonnet, trunk-hose and doublet, a sword 
by his side, with his right hand on the pommel thereof, and his 
left clasping the hilt. * * * Then we asked him, ' Honoured sir, 
could you perchance tell us whether Martin Luther is now at 
Wittenberg, or where he may be V He answered, ' I have cer- 
tain information that Luther is not now at Wittenberg, but he is 
to be there shortly. But Philip Melanchthon is there ; he 
teaches the Greek language, and there are others who teach He- 
brew, both which I would in all faithfulness counsel you to study, 
for they are before all things needful to understand Scripture." 
* * * Thus conversing we grew quite friendly together, so that 
my companion ventured to take up the book which lay beside 



LUTHER'S RETURN TO WITTENBERG. 87 

him, and behold ! it was a Hebrew psalter." On arriving at 
Wittenberg they went to present letters of introduction which 
they had brought to Schurff ; whereon Kepler continues, " When 
we were called into the room, lo, there we find Martin, dressed 
as at Jena, along with Philip Melanchthon, Justus Jonas, Nicho- 
las Amsdorf, and Dr. Schurff, who were telling him all that 
had passed at Wittenberg, in his absence. He greeted us smil- 
ing, and said, pointing with his finger, ' This is Philip Melanch- 
thon, of whom I told you.' " 



XXVI. 



LUTHER ALLAYING THE FURY OF THE ICONOCLASTS. 1522. 



LUTHER thus gives in a letter the motives of his return : " I 
have been compelled to plunge with my life in my hand 
into the midst of the Emperor's and Pope's fury, if so be I may 
drive the wolf out of my sheepfold. * * * For I perceive that 
Satan is casting about how he may not only quench the light of 
the Gospel, but bring great bloodshed to pass in Germany." 
(No. 369.) 

He arrived at Wittenberg on Friday the 6th of March. On 
the following Sunday, he entered the pulpit and began a course 
of eight sermons, continued during the succeeding days of that 
week, on ^Charity, the Use and Abuse of Christian Freedom, 
Image-worship, Fasting, the Holy Communion, and Confession. 
In such expressions as these he shows that forms and acts must 
be the fruit of the right spirit, but can never produce it : " Dear 
friends, the kingdom of God standeth not in speech or in words, 
but in .power and in deed. For God will not have mere hearers 

12 89 



90 ALLAYING THE FURY OF THE ICONOCLASTS. 

and repeaters of the Word, but followers and doers of it, who ex- 
ercise themselves in that faith which worketh by love. For faith 
without love is nothing worth ; yea, it is not faith, but only a 
semblance thereof. Just as a countenance seen in a mirror is 
not a real countenance, but only a semblance thereof." " Those 
have erred who have done away with the mass ; not that that 
were not a good thing, but because they have not clone it in a law- 
ful manner. * * Hereby it is evident that though ye may indeed 
be well read in the Scripture, ye do not understand its spirit." 
**•*-" See that ye turn not a may be into a must be ; * * lest 
ye have to give account for those who have been led into sin by 
your unloving liberty." * * * " For since we have no power to 
pour faith into the heart, we cannot and ought not to do any- 
thing by constraint or force. * * * We must first take men's 
hearts captive, and that is brought about by preaching God's 
Word, declaring the Gospel, exposing error. * * With uproar 
and violence ye will never do God's work ; that you will see. 
And if you persevere therein, I, at all events, will have nothing to 
do with you. 

If I had taken matters in hand with violence and tumult, I 
should have begun a game that would have filled Germany with 
bloodshed. And what should I have effected? A mere farce, 
bringing ruin to body and soul. I sat still, and let the Word do 
its work." 

"Do ye as the Apostles did." *■* " When Paul was at 
Athens he went into the temples and saw the idols and images ; 
yet he did not break or insult them ; * * but he went out on 



ALLAYING THE FURY OF THE ICONOCLASTS. 91 

Mars Hill and rebuked the Athenians for their superstition and 
idolatry." 

So powerful was Luther's eloquence, that one of the fanatical 
preachers against whom he was contending said, on hearing him, 
" It is as though I heard the voice of an angel, not of a man." 
His counsels prevailed, and the Reformation resumed a peace- 
able course. 



27. 












J^ 



JP 



^Vife# ! 



XXVII. 

LUTHER CONTINUES HIS TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE WITH THE HELP OF 
MELANCHTHON. 1523-1524. 



AFTER the disturbances raised by the fanatics had been 
- quelled, Luther resumed his wonted labours at Wittenberg, 
and especially devoted himself to the perfecting of his translation 
of the Bible, the whole of which was completed in 1523. There 
had been previous translations of the Scriptures ; but Luther's 
so far excelled them both in correctness and beauty, that it was 
even made the basis of the subsequent translations by the Roman 
Catholics, and it has perhaps contributed more than any other 
work to fix and purify the German language. 

Luther was assisted in this work by Melanchthon, who had 
come to Wittenberg as professor of Greek in 1518, at the age of 
twenty-one, and who, from that time till death parted them, was 
Luther's dearest and most intimate friend, with whom he shared 
all his feelings, thoughts, and conflicts. As Mathesius says : 
" God having endowed Melanchthon with special gifts, * :): * gave 



94 LUTIIEE'S TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE.. 

him to our doctor, as the Son of God gave the eloquent speaker 
Aaron to his prophet Moses in Egypt." The letters which Lu- 
ther wrote soon after Melanchthon's arrival in Wittenberg are 
full of praises of the boyish professor. " Philip Melanchthon," 
he says (iS T o. 76) " has delivered an extraordinarily learned and 
clever oration, to the delight and astonishment of all. * * * We 
soon forgot his outward appearance, and congratulate ourselves 
with wonder at what we have obtained in him." He even says, 
in August, 1520 (No. 250), " I know not what to think of my- 
self. Perhaps I am the forerunner of Melanchthon, whose way I 
am preparing as an Elias in spirit and in power ; and it is he 
who shall trouble Israel and the house of Ahab." 

Mathesius too tells us how Luther said to him and other young 
students, when guests at his table : " Next to the Bible, read 
Philip's Common-places. That is the best of books, for in it pure 
theology is summed up correctly and systematically. * * * Ger- 
son, Proles, &c, * * have preserved and handed clown to us 
somewhat of pure doctrine. But our Philip knows how to ex- 
plain the Scripture, to think over the matter, and then to put it 
with admirable terseness. So, too, he has learnt how to pray 
through crosses and temptations, and conversed with the greatest 
and most learned adversaries, and is in earnest with his theolog}\ 
Therefore, my young friends, read his Common-places and his 
Commentary on the Romans with diligence." 






I 




XXVIII. 



LUTHER PREACHING AT SEEBURG AGAINST THE PEASANTS' WAR IN 152; 



THE engraving before us exhibits Luther standing up on be- 
half of the civil power against the spirit of anarchy. 
During the latter half of the fifteenth and beginning of the 
sixteenth centuries, there had been many risings among the Ger- 
man peasantry, who were mostly held in serfdom, and all grie- 
vously oppressed by the exactions, and sometimes cruelty, of the 
nobles. They not only suffered from the tyranny of their own 
lords, but from the lawless feuds continually occurring between 
the nobles themselves, who sacked and ravaged each other's cas- 
tles and lands without scruple in their own private quarrels ; nay, 
who were some of them little better than brigands. The rich mo- 
nasteries of the luxurious and vicious clergy were generally the 
first objects that attracted at once the hatred of the peasants and 
their love of spoil. Outbreaks of this kind had occurred in 1514, 
1515, and 1524 in the southern and more popish provinces of 
Germany. But in the beginning of 1525, a formidable insurrec- 



95 



96 PEEACHING AGAINST THE PEASANTS' WAE. 

tion broke out in Saxony and Thuringia, led at first by a layman 
named Pfeiffer, but soon joined and headed by Miinzer, one of 
the fanatics of Zwickau before referred to, who, having already 
formed a religious party, now turned it into a political faction, 
aiming at nothing less than the overthrow of the whole existing 
polity and the establishment of a sort of communism under the 
sway of the saints ; that is to say, Miinzer's own disciples and 
followers. Mathesius tells us that Mtinzer "inveighed alike 
against the popes of Rome and of "Wittenberg ; derogated from 
Scripture, appealing to his own revelations and spiritual dreams ; 
looked for signs from heaven ; set up a newfangled holiness, con- 
sisting in rising above sense and mortifying the flesh ; burnt 
images ; plundered convents ; gathered a band of followers ; 
raised a tumult ; deposed the old senate [of Muhlhausen, where 
he lived] ; chose a fresh one ; dispensed justice. Next he proves, 
as a prophet of heaven, the duty of making war upon the un- 
godly ; and having enlisted the Mansfield miners, prepares for 
the onslaught." 

In the earlier part of the contest, Luther endeavoured to be 
a peace-maker, exhorting the princes to redress the well-founded 
complaints of their subjects, and the people to abstain from vio- 
lence and revolts^ 

Thus he says, in his "Exhortation to Peace " (1525) : "In 
the first place, we have no one to thank for such disorders but 
you princes and lords, specially you blind bishops and insane 
priests, who even now * * cease not to grind and flay the poor 
common man to keep up your pomp and pride, till he neither 



PREACHING AGAINST THE PEASANTS' WAR. 97 

can nor will bear it longer. The sword is on your neck, while 
ye think to sit so fast in the saddle that none can unhorse you. 

* * Yet, unless God be moved by your repentance to avert it, 
this conspiracy of the peasants must lead to the ruin, wasting, 
and desolation of our German land by horrible murder and blood- 
shed. For know, dear masters, it is God's doing that men 
neither can nor will endure your oppression any longer. You 
must change your ways, and yield to God's voice ; * * if not wil- 
lingly, then by force. * * If these peasants do not do the work, 
others will. * :;: * * If ye will yet hearken to good counsel, my 
masters, for God's sake give place a little to wrath. A waggon 
load of hay should turn aside for a drunken man, how much 
more should ye cease from your tyranny, and treat the peasants 
gently as men drunk or led astray. You know not what the end 
will be ; try kind means, lest a spark be kindled that may light 
such a flame over all Germany as none can quench." 

Again to the peasants he says : " Dear friends, you bear 
God's name, and call yourselves a Cristian Society, and profess 
you intend to carry out God's laws. * * * You know God is 
mighty enough to chastise you, if you bear his name in vain. 

* * * Yet if all your demands were according to natural law and 
justice, still ye have quite forgotten the law of Christ, which 
conquers by prayer and patience, inasmuch as ye have under- 
taken to wrest your wishes by violence from the authorities ; 
which is, moreover, contrary both to the law of the land and to 
natural justice." 

At the request of the Elector, Luther undertook a journey to 

13 



98 PREACHING AGAINST THE PEASANTS' WAR. 

the disturbed districts, preaching in Seeburg, Jena, &c, in the 
hope of bringing the people to a better mind. His efforts were 
not wholly fruitless upon those who heard him, but the rebellion 
continued to make head. " And when (says Mathesius) the pea- 
sants stopped their ears, and, under the name and pretext of the 
Gospel, behaved as devils, assailing not only convents and clergy, 
but also their civil governors, and impaled a count and burnt 
and pillaged the castles of the noblemen, Dr. Luther was stirred 
up to defend God's order and the estate of the rulers, and to con- 
demn the bloodthirsty doings of the peasants in a very severe 
book, and to admonish the terrified authorities to destroy such a 
noxious brood with the power of the sword." The authorities do 
not seem to have stood in need of such an admonition — the re- 
volt was soon put down, and Munzer executed. 

It cannot be denied that Luther, in his horror at the atroci- 
ties committed by the peasants, seems to have forgotten in this 
second book to give a due share of the blame to those who, while 
they ought to have known how to use power, drove ignorant, 
misguided wretches to madness by their oppression. His temp- 
tation to this error lay no doubt in the circumstance that the 
papal party took advantage of these troubles to confound the 
Christian liberty of conscience claimed by the Protestants with 
the anarchical principles set forth by the fanatics ; and thus to 
represent the crimes of the peasants as the mere consequence of 
the teaching at Wittenberg. 



XXIX. 



LUTHER'S MARRIAGE 



LUTHER held views of matrimony singularly just and noble 
for one trained in a cloister. Thus he says : " There is no 
relationship so lovely, no communion so friendly, no society so 
sweet, as a good married life, when husband and wife dwell 
together in peace and unity." " Peace and happiness in married 
life is, next to God Himself and the knowledge of his Word, the 
highest blessing and gift that God can bestow on us." 

He seems early in life to have come to a just appreciation of 
the moral evils resulting from the unworthy esteem in which 
marriage is held by the Romish Church. Several of his followers 
among the clergy married at the very commencement of the Re- 
formation, and he always defended their conduct. Yet he thus 
replies, in Xovember, 1524, to some who urged him to follow 
their example (No. 1137) : "I am indeed in the hand of God, as 
His creature, whose heart He may change and re-change every 
moment. But as my heart has stood hitherto, and still stands, it 
will never come to pass that I shall take a wife. Not that I am 
* * made of wood or stone, but that my mind is bent upon other 
things than marrying, seeing that I am in daily expectation of 



100 LUTHER'S MARRIAGE. 

death * * as a heretic. Therefore I would not willingly hinder 
God from accomplishing all His work in me, nor that my heart 
should struggle against it." But in the following June he writes 
(No. 1212) : "lam minded, before I depart this life, to be found 
as a married man, which I judge that God requires of me, should 
my marriage be no more than a betrothal like Joseph's." And 
in his Table-talk, referring to this, he says : " This I had quite 
resolved within myself to do, before I took a wife, to do honour 
to the estate of matrimony. If I had been about to die unex- 
pectedly, or were even already lying on my deathbed, I would 
have had a pious maiden brought to me and the marriage per- 
formed, and afterwards given her two silver cups as keepsake 
and morning gift" (xliii. § 3). 

His choice fell upon Catherine von Bora, one of nine nuns 
who had together quitted the convent of Nimptsch on religious 
grounds, about two years previously ; and its wisdom was 
proved by twenty years of unbroken domestic happiness. Thus 
he said of her, that he " prized her more highly than the kingdom 
of France or the empire of the Venetians ; for a pious wife had 
been given and bestowed on him by God. * * * And everywhere 
among married people he heard of much greater faults and fail- 
ings than were to* be found in her." And writes : " She is more 
to me than I had dared to hope, thanks be to God ; so that I 
would not exchange my poverty for the treasures of Croesus." 

The engraving represents the ceremony as it was performed 
in the house of Catherine's guardian Beichenbach, by Bugenha- 
gen, with Lucas Cranach and Dr. Apel, professor of jurispru- 
dence, for witnesses. 



M 




XXX. 



LUTHER'S CONFERENCE WITH ZWINGLE CONCERNING THE SACRAMENT. 1529. 



WHILE Luther was the means of bringing about a reform of 
the Church in Germany, the same work was being inde- 
pendently carried on in Switzerland by Zwingle, QEcolampadius, 
and other divines of less note. Their doctrinal views were in 
general similar to those of Luther ; but they differed from him in 
regard to the Lord's Supper, maintaining that Christ was present 
in the sacrament only in a spiritual, not in a corporeal sense ; 
while Luther taught that the body of Christ was truly present 
and united with the bread and wine, as light and heat penetrate 
through air, water, crystal, &c, and exist therein without occupy- 
ing any space or changing the substance of these bodies. (See 
Confession concerning the Lord's Supper. 1528.) 

A controversy on this subject arose between the German and 
Swiss Reformers, the chief points of which are thus summed up 
by Mathesius : "The opponents" (Zwingle, &c.) " leant on those 

words of St. John, ' The flesh profiteth nothing f moreover, 

101 



102 LUTHEE'S COISTFEKENOE WITH ZWINGLE. 

argued that a material body could not be in many places at once ; 
that sacraments were signs, consequently the elements only sig- 
nified the body of Christ ; and that therefore the true body and 
blood of Christ were not present with the bread, or in the admi- 
nistering of the Holy Sacrament. The which was thus confuted 
by Dr. Luther : the text ' the flesh profiteth nothing ' does not 
refer to the flesh of Jesus Christ, which bringeth and giveth life, 
but man's natural understanding. Further, we ought not to think 
or speak of Christ's glorified body, which is united with the 
Divine Nature in one indivisible Person, hath ascended into hea- 
ven and sitteth at the right hand of the Father, governs and 
works everywhere, in the same manner as of our natural and 
human body. For God has given to the Lord Jesus a name and 
power which is above every name or power. Therefore, although 
it may seem impossible and absurd to reason, yet God can can do 
all that He says. Now, Christ's true words stand clearly there, 
1 This is my body,' * * ' This is my blood.' With regard to 
which we may not shorten God's hand ; for with Him, as the 
angel says to Mary, nothing is impossible." 

After the controversy had been carried on for nearly five 
years, the Landgrave of Hesse, who ardently desired to bring 
about a religious and political union between all sections of Pro- 
testants, summoned the chiefs on both sides to a friendly confe- 
rence at Marburg, in October, 1529. He also invited Bucer and 
Capito from Strasburg, who had taken a middle course, and en- 
deavoured to mediate between the German and Swiss Reformers. 
The latter accepted the Landgrave's invitation with gladness ; 



LUTHER'S COXFEREffCE WITH ZWINGLE. 103 

Zwingle without hesitation, though with little hope of a good re- 
sult ; but Luther was with great difficulty persuaded to attend. 
The conference was held in a private apartment of the palace, in 
the presence of the Landgrave and his principal ministers ; but 
was as fruitless as was to be expected from the circumstance that 
Luther had declared beforehand that he would not yield, seeing 
that he had ''taken his stand upon the Word of God." "When 
the discussion had lasted three days, the Landgrave proposed 
that it should terminate by both sides signing a declaration that 
while they each retained their own opinion, they agreed on the 
essentials of faith, and recognized each other as Christian 
brethren. The Zwinglian party at once assented, offering at the 
same time to prove from Scripture that their differences were not 
fundamental. The Lutherans, alas ! refused, and by this act not 
only frustrated the noble and wise project of the Landgrave, but 
divided the Protestant Church for centuries, and consecrated 
afresh for succeeding generations that fatal error of the Romish 
Church, that Christian brotherhood cannot coexist with diversity 
of intellectual apprehension. 

The engraving represents Luther and Zwingle standing in 
ardent controversy, while the Landgrave of Hesse and Ulrich of 
"Wurtemburg are listening to them attentively. Melanchthon and 
(Ecolampadius are seated on the left, engaged in quieter discus- 
sion. 



u 




XXXI. 



THE PRESENTING OF THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION OF FAITH. 



IN April. 1529, the majority of the Diet assembled at Spires 
having passed a decree commanding the restoration of the 
mass, and forbidding the introduction of fresh innovations, until 
the meeting of a general or national council, the minority "pro- 
tested" against it. claiming the right of worshipping according to 
the mode which their consciences prescribed, and thus in effect 
denying the authority of the civil power to command in matters 
of faith. Such at least was in substance the ground taken by the 
subscribers to the memorable Appeal from which Protestants have 
derived their name. It was signed by six Princes, the Elector 
of Saxony. George of Brandenburg, Philip of Hesse, Wolfgang 
of Anhault, and Ernest and Francis of Lunenburg ; and by four- 
teen imperial cities, of which the principal were Strasburg, Nu- 
remberg, 171m, and Constance. 

In .the following January, Charles convoked the Estates of 

14 105 



106 PKESENTING THE AUGSBUKG CONFESSION. 

the Empire to meet at Augsburg in April 1530, to settle the 
Lutheran controversy, and restore the unity of the Church. 

On receiving notice of the intended Diet, the Elector called 
upon Luther to draw up a summary of the Protestant articles of 
faith, which summary was afterwards expanded by Melanchthon 
into the famous Augsburg Confession of Faith. Luther, as hav- 
ing been condemned at Worms, and peculiarly obnoxious to the 
papal party, was left behind by the Elector in the Castle of. Co- 
burg, half-way on the road to Augsburg, where he could be in 
constant communication with his brethren, Melanchthon, Spala- 
tin and Jonas, who were selected to represent the Protestant 
party in the approaching discussion. Melanchthon seems to have 
entertained some hope, that by concession a union might be 
brought about between Protestants and Romanists. Luther 
knew better, perceiving that the latter could not yield one point 
without surrendering their very citadel — the principle of the 
infallibility of the Church. 

On arriving at Augsburg the Protestant princes placed their 
preachers in some of the principal churches, and refused to 
silence them till Protestants and Romanists alike were forbidden 
to preach. They next refused to take part in the procession on 
Corpus Christi day. The Elector of Saxony consented to fulfil 
his office of Grand Marshal of the Empire in accompanying the 
Emperor to mass at the opening of the Diet, but stood, while all 
beside were kneeling, at the elevation of the host. The papal 
party wished the Protestants to send their apology in, writing to 
the Emperor, but they refused to present it in any other manner 



PRESENTING THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 107 

than by reading it before the assembled Diet ; and Bayer, the 
chancellor of the Elector, insisted on reading it in German as well 
as Latin. This document, signed by the princes as well as the 
theologians, was presented on the 25th of June ; which thus be- 
came the era of the introduction of Protestant principles into 
political organization. 

11 Great is ni} 7 joy,' 7 writes Luther to Cordatus (Xo. 1246), 
" to have lived to this hour, in which Christ has been publicly 
preached in so noble a confession, by such confessors, before so 
great an assembly. Xow is fulfilled that saying, ' I will speak of 
thy testimonies also before kings,' and that other shall also be 
fulfilled, : and will not be confounded,' for ' whosoever shall con- 
me before men, him will I confess also before my Father 
which is in heaven.'' "I am quite easy and of good cheer 
touching our common cause,'* he writes to Melanchthon, "for I 
know that it is the cause of Christ and of God. Therefore I care 
nought for the threats and rage of the Papists. If we fall, Christ 
falls with us, He, the Ruler of the world. But if He fall, I had 
rather fall with Christ than stand with Caesar. * * You are not 
upholding the cause alone. I stand by you with my sighs and 
prayers. that I were so in body too ! For the cause is mine, 
as much as yours, nay more * * * I beseech you, for Christ's 
sake, throw not to the winds God's promises and consolations 
when he says, ' Cast thy care upon God.' * * * 'Be of good cheer, 
I have overcome the world.' Why should we fear the conquered 
world ?" 

In the engraving the Protestants are represented on the right 



108 PKESENTING THE AUGSBTTKG CONFESSION. 

hand, the Catholics on the left. Before the Emperor Christian 
Bayer, the chancellor of the Elector of Saxony, is reading the 
Confession of Faith. Behind him are seated the Landgrave of 
Hesse resting on his sword, John of Saxony with his hands folded 
in prayer, and the Margrave John of Brandenburg. In the fore- 
ground stands Melanchthon, full of sorrow at the impending divi- 
sion of the Church of Christ. Above, Luther is seen in prayer, 
and below, the artist has placed the arms of Luther and Me- 
lanchthon, with Luther's chosen motto, taken from his favourite 
118th Psalm, " I shall not die, but live." 



XXXII . 



THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. 



LUTHER throughout his whole course took his stand upon the 
Bible. To that he refers every question that arises, as to 
an ultimate authority ; and among the qualifications which he 
requires for preachers, one of the first is, that they should be 
diligent students of the Bible. "The Bible," says he, "will 
make and fashion a theologian, especially when he understands 
the original languages, and humbly seeks Christ therein with 
earnest prayer." Yet he was not for an unintelligent reverence 
for the mere letter of Scripture. " Thou must," says he, " dis- 
criminate among the books of the Bible, and take note which are 
the best." " In this all truly sacred books concur, that they one 
and all preach Christ. And this is the right test by which to pass 
judgment on books when we see whether or no they treat of 
Christ." Again he says, in the tract against Hans Wurst, "That 
which does not teach Christ is not apostolic, though Peter or 
Paul taught it ; and again, that which preaches Christ is apos- 
tolic, though Judas, Pilate and Herod said it." 



109 



110 THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. 

Mathesius tells us that, "when the whole Bible had been 
published in German, Dr. Luther takes it up again from the be- 
ginning, with much earnestness, diligence, and prayer, and con- 
vokes as it were a Sanhedrim of the best men that could be 
found, who come together every week at his house, viz. : Dr. 
Bugenhagen, Dr. Jonas, Dr. Kreuziger, Master Melanchthon, 
M. Aurogallus, * * with G. Borer, the corrector, and often some 
foreign doctors and scholars. * * Now when our doctor had 
looked through the Bible already published, and besides inquired 
among the Jews and foreign linguists, and picked up good words 
by asking old Germans, * * he came into the assembly with his 
old Latin and new German Bible, and always brought a Hebrew 
text also ; Melanchthon brought the Greek text, Dr. Kreuziger 
the Hebrew and Chaldee, and the professors had their Babbis 
with them. * * * Each had prepared himself beforehand for the 
passage on which they were to deliberate and looked at * * the 
commentators thereon. * * * Wonderfully beautiful and instruc- 
tive things were said in the course of this work, some of which 
Borer afterwards printed as marginal notes. * * After due ex- 
hortation, each stated his opinion, which he proved to the best of 
his ability by the grammar, or context, or testimony of the 
learned, till at length, in the year 1542, this work was, by God's 
grace, accomplished." 

In the engraving, Luther is represented standing between 
Melanchthon and Bugenhagen ; on the left Jonas is looking up 
towards Luther, while on the right Kreuziger is seen in conver- 
sation with the Babbis. 



Oct. I 
V&tf.ffl 




XXXI11. 



THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SCHOOLS AND INTRODUCTION OF THE CATECHISM. 



BY the Reformation the people passed from nonage into man's 
estate, and, loosed from the leading-strings of the priests, 
were made to feel themselves accountable for their belief and 
actions. Luther saw the necessity of education to enable them 
to use their freedom aright. The establishment of schools was 
one of his first cares, and to him is Germany in great measure 
indebted for her noble apparatus of popular education. 

In 1524, Luther wrote an " Appeal to the Burgomasters and 
Councillors of all German towns, to establish and maintain Chris- 
tian Schools," in which he says: "I beg you all, dear masters 
and friends, for God's sake, and our poor children's sake, do not 
deem this a small matter. * * * For it is a grave and weighty 
matter of great moment to Christ and the whole world, that we 
help and guide the younger generation. * * Dear masters, how 
much are you obliged to spend yearly on arms, highways, dams, 
&c, * * for a town to enjoy temporal peace and comfort ; how 



112 THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SCHOOLS. 

much rather should you spend such a sum on the children of the 
poor and needy. * * * What do we elder men live for, but to 
tend the rising generation, to instruct and train them ? * * God 
has committed them into our hands, and will call us to a heavy 
reckoning on their account. * * Therefore it behoves all those in 
authority to devote the utmost care and diligence to the young. 
* * * As I have shown you, the common man does nothing [to- 
wards the establishment of schools] ; moreover, he is neither able 
nor willing, nor knows how to do anything. The princes and 
nobles ought, indeed, to take the thing in hand ; but they have 
to ride, to drink, to joust, and are laden with high affairs of the 
cellar, kitchen, and chamber. * * * Therefore, dear masters, it is 
left in your hands, and you have more calling and opportunity 
thereunto than even princes and nobles.' 7 

In 1527 the Elector of Saxony, by the advice and with the 
assistance of Luther, set on foot a general visitation of the 
churches throughout Saxony, to supply them with suitable men 
for pastors, and also to establish good German and Latin schools. 
Luther took an active part in the work, often examining the poor 
peasants and children himself, to learn their real mental condi- 
tion and wants. He afterwards compiled an admirable manual 
of popular instruction in his Smaller Catechism, of which he says : 
"I was compelled and driven to draw up this Catechism, or 
Christian doctrine, in such a brief and simple form, by the lamen- 
table and wretched destitution of religious knowledge which I 
had by experience found to exist during the late visitation." 

Neither did Luther wish to confine popular education within 



THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SCHOOLS. 113 

narrow limits. Thus he says, in the " Appeal" already quoted : 
11 But if there were neither soul, nor heaven, nor hell, and we 
had no need of schools in order to understand the Scriptures and 
God's will, yet it were reason enough for establishing the best 
schools for boys and girls in all places, that the world needs well- 
educated men and women to keep up its outward condition. * * 
I speak for myself, if I had children, and could afford it, they 
should not only learn the classical languages and history, but also 
music and mathematics. * * * Yea, how I regret now that I have 
not read more poets and historians !" And again, in a sermon 
on the same subject, preached in 1530, he says : "And if I had 
to lay clown my office as preacher, there is none which I would 
sooner assume than that of schoolmaster. For I know that this 
work is the most useful and honourable of all offices next to that 
of the preacher ; indeed, I scarcely know which of the two is the 
best. * * * Is it not to be feared that may-be an idol-worshipper 
(I mean of Mammon) will take his son away from school, saying, 
' It is enough if my son can read, and keep accounts, as we have 
now books in German/ and thus set a bad example to other 
honest citizens ? * * * But a community, especially such a city 
[Nuremberg], ought to contain more men than merchants, and 
some who can do more than read German books and keep 
accounts. For preaching, governing, administering the law, all 
the arts and languages in the world are too few. * * * But such 
idolators never think how governing is to be carried on, nor 
remember that without it they would not be able to serve their 
God,. Mammon, for an hour. * * * 

15 



114 THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SCHOOLS. 

" But I hold that it is the duty of the civil powers to constrain 
their subjects to send their children to school. * * If they have a 
right to compel able-bodied men to bear arms and man the de- 
fences in case of war, how much more may they, and ought they, 
to oblige them to send their children to school, seeing that a far 
deadlier warfare has to be waged with Satan himself! * * "Where- 
fore, let him who can see to this ; and let the magistrates, when 
they see a likely boy, keep him to school : and if his father is 
poor, let them assist him with the Church property, and let the 
rich bequeath money in their wills for this purpose. * * That 
were, indeed, to leave their money to the Church !" 



XXXIV. 



THE SERMON". 



THE prominence assumed by the doctrine of justification by 
faith in the Lutheran system, led to the exaltation of the 
office of the preacher, through whose announcement of the Gos- 
pel faith was commonly produced. Among the Lutherans the 
sermon had taken the place of the mass, as the means of bringing 
the sinner into reconciliation with God. 

"Therefore.*' says Luther, "look to it. ye pastors and 
preachers. Our office is become a very different thing to what 
it was under the Pope : it is an awful, but a wholesome one. 
Hence now-a-days it brings much more toil and labour, responsi- 
bility and vexations, and withal little reward or thanks from the 
world ; but Christ Himself will be our reward, if we faithfully 
labour for Him." 

'* Xo one filling the office of teacher and preacher now-a-days 
is fit for his post unless he have joy and delight in Him who has 
sent him. Moses prayed our Lord God six times that he might 



115 



116 THE SERMOff. 

be excused ; yet lie was forced to go. And so, too. hath He 
forced me into this office. * * * * 0. my masters, it is no child's 
play." 

Hence Luther gives such counsels as these to young preachers 
(Table-talk. xxii. § 100) : : *' When you are going to preach, speak 
with God, saying. ' Lord God, I desire to preach to thy glory ; 
I will speak of Thee, exalt Thee, praise thy Xaine. even though 

I cannot do it so well as I ought.' And do not regard Melanch- 
thon. or me, or any other learned man. but think yourself the 
most learned of all when you are speaking of God from the pul- 
pit. I have never suffered myself to be abashed with the notion 
that I could not preach well enough : but I have often been 
abashed and terrified at the thought that I had to speak, and 
must speak, before God's face about His infinite majesty and 
divine essence." 

Luther thus expresses his view of what preaching should be : 

II I endeavour to set before my mind a text and to keep to it, and 
so to explain it and fix it in the minds of the people, that they 
may be able to say afterwards. ' he said this and that in the ser- 
mon.' " (Table-talk, xx. §25). And again. ,; Woe and ana- 
thema to all those preachers who love to handle lofty, difficult, 
and subtle questions in the pulpit, and bring such before the 
common people, and enlarge upon them, seeking their own ho- 
nour and glory. When I preach here in "Wittenberg I let myself 
down as much as possible, and do not think about the doctors 
and learned men, of whom there may be some forty present, but 
look at the crowds of young men. children, and servants., who are 



THE SERMON. 117 

there by hundreds and thousands ; to them I preach, and to them 
I adapt myself, for they need it. And if the others do not like 
it, the door is open, let them walk out." (Table-talk, xxii. 
§143.) 

Mathesius also tells us : "I have more than once heard him 
say at table, how that in the schools it was proper to dispute and 
bring forward acute arguments to confute the adversaries ; but 
that in the pulpit those are the best preachers who discourse in 
childlike, ordinary, simple style, intelligible to the common peo- 
ple ; who do not propose difficult questions, nor confute the rea- 
sonings of their adversaries, nor yet cast censure upon absent 
magistrates, or monks, or priests, or give sideways blows to 
those who oppose or dislike them. For in church we had only 
to do with those present, but in the schools with the absent 
as well." 

These few sayings will perhaps be found to contain the secret 
of the wonderful power exerted by Luther's preaching over his 
contemporaries. 



■ -- - : ^ 










XXXV. 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE LORD'S SUPPER IN BOTH KINDS. 



cc A CHRISTIAN" should know that there is nothing on earth 
-^~-»- more sacred than God's Word ; for even the sacrament 
is made such, and blessed, and hallowed through God's Word ; 
and thereby are we all born in the Spirit, and dedicated as Chris- 
tians.'' Thus speaks Luther in his Tract " On the receiving of 
the Sacrament in both Kinds," written in 1522, with immediate 
reference to the innovations introduced by Carlstadt. " A Chris- 
tian," he says further, " is holy in body and soul, whether he be 
layman or priest, man or woman ; and he who says otherwise 
blasphemes holy baptism, Christ's word, and the Holy Spirit's 
grace. * * The Christian is not made for the sacrament, but the 
sacrament for the Christian. * * Therefore we beg, nay, we com- 
mand, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, those who have 
received it under both kinds not to be persuaded that they have 
committed a sin thereby, but rather to yield up life itself. * * * 
For the text of the Gospel is so clear, that even the Papists 



119 



120 ADMINISTRATION OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 

cannot deny that Christ instituted the Lord's supper in both 
kinds, and gave it thus to all His disciples." Yet he would not 
force the consciences of those who thought it right to adhere to 
the old form. " In such a case,' 7 he says, " the command of love 
is to be preferred far before the administration in both kinds. 
For Christ lies more in love than in the forms of the sacrament." 

The nature of the view embodied in the Church of the Refor- 
mation is well expressed by Luther in his "Sermon on the Sacra- 
ment," published in 1519 : "Thus we hold that there are two 
chief sacraments in the Churches, baptism, and the Lord's supper. 
Baptism introduces us into a new life on earth. The Lord's sup- 
per conducts us through death into eternal life. * * And the 
fruit of this sacrament is communion and love, whereby we are 
strengthened against death and all evil. In such sort, that the 
communion is of two kinds ; first, that we have part in Christ 
and all the saints ; secondly, that we allow all Christians to have 
part in us, so far as they and we are able. So that the selfish 
love of oneself being rooted out through this sacrament, may 
give place to the universal love of all mankind ; and thus, through 
the transformation wrought by love, there may be one bread, 
one cup, one body, one communion, which is the true and Chris- 
tian brotherly unity." 

And again, in his " Sermon on the New Testament, that is to 
say, on the Holy Mass" (1520) : "Hence we ought to take good 
heed to the word ' sacrifice,' that we may not presumptuously 
think to give something to Grod in this sacrament, in which it is 
He who gives us all things. We ought, indeed, to offer up a 



ADMINISTRATION OF THE LOED'S SUPPEK. 121 

spiritual sacrifice ; what then shall we offer ? Ourselves, and all 
that we have, with diligent prayer, as we say, l Thy will be done 
on earth as it is in heaven.' * * * It is true we are not to 
lay these sacrifices before God's eyes in our own name, but to 
lay them on Christ. * * * For to this end he is a priest, as it is 
said : ' Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek.' 
And ' He is ever at the right hand of God, and maketh inter- 
cession for us.' * * * From which words we learn that we do not 
offer Christ, but Christ offers us. And in this sense it is allowa- 
ble, yea profitable, to call the mass a sacrifice ; not for its own 
sake, but that we offer ourselves with Christ, with a firm belief 
in his Testament." * * * * 



16 



■'. 




XXXYI, 



LUTHER READING THE BIBLE TO THE ELECTOR JOHN". 



THIS engraving, if not a portraiture of any given fact, truth- 
fully represents the relation in which Luther stood both to 
this prince and his son and successor John Frederick, of which 
his letters afford many illustrations ; for these princes undertook 
nothing of importance, especially with regard to the Church or 
schools, without consulting him ; and he on his side evinced the 
warmest attachment, as well as respect for them. Thus he writes 
from Coburg to Prince John (No. 1215) : " It is a great sign that 
God loves your Grace, that having given you his Holy Word in 
rich abundance, and made you worthy to receive it, He further 
grants you to suffer obloquy and hatred for the sake thereof, 
which is always a consolation to the conscience. * * * Moreover, 
the God of mercy shows His favour, in that He makes His Word 
so mighty and fruitful in your Grace's land, which truly possesses 
more and better pastors and preachers than any other land in the 
world. * * And hence the tender flocks of boys and girls are 



123 



124 BEADING THE BIBLE TO THE ELECTOR. 

growing up so well instructed, that it warms my heart to see how 
youths and maidens know and believe and can tell more about 
God and Christ than formerly all the monasteries and convents 
and schools could do. * * * It is as though God said : ' Behold, 
dear Duke John, I entrust to thee my noblest treasures, my 
pleasantest paradise : thou shalt be father over it. For I will 
have them to be under thy protection and rule, and do thee the 
honour to make thee my gardener and steward.' And this is 
assuredly true." * * 

Luther's counsels to his sovereign appear to have been always 
dictated rather by considerations of religion than of policy. 
Thus, when his opinion was demanded as to the formation of a 
league for mutual defence among the Protestant states, and again 
with regard to the election of Ferdinand to be King of the Ro- 
mans, he repeatedly dissuaded the Elector, on scriptural grounds, 
from entering into any alliance which might bring him into colli- 
sion with his lawful head, the Emperor (even in one letter declar- 
ing that he should be constrained by conscience to leave the 
country in such a case), while he advised his sovereign to vote in 
favour of Ferdinand, although notoriously hostile to the Protest- 
ants. In the latter case, the danger of such a course appeared 
so clear to the Elector, that Luther's advice was disregarded. 

But Luther's political principles are most clearly exhibited in 
a letter to the Elector John (No. 1191), written in answer to the 
question whether, in case the Emperor should, as was expected, 
take violent measures against the followers of the Gospel, it was 
lawful to resist him by force of arms. Luther says : " After due 



BEADING THE BIBLE TO THE ELECTOE. 125 

consideration, we find that, perhaps, according to worldly right, 
some might conclude it allowable in such a case to resort to self- 
defence, seeing that his majesty the Emperor has engaged and 
bound himself by oath not to use violence towards any, but to 
leave them in the enjoyment of their former liberty. * * * But 
according to the Scriptures, it is nowise befitting any who wishes 
to be a Christian, to set himself against his governors, whether 
they do justly or unjustly. * * For although the Emperor should 
violate rights, and break his engagements and oath, yet that does 
not annul his imperial authority, nor absolve his subjects from 
their obedience. * * In short, sin neither abrogates authority nor 
obedience, but punishment does ; i. e. if the electors were unani- 
mously to depose the Emperor, so that he were no longer Em- 
peror. * * * If his imperial majesty choose to molest us, no prince 
or lord ought to protect us against him, but to leave his land and 
people open to the Emperor, whose they are, and commit the 
matter to Grod ; and no man ought to desire anj^thing else of his 
prince, but each should stand upon his own footing, and main- 
tain his faith by yielding up his life for it, and not bring his 
prince into danger, or burden him with his defence, but suffer 
the Emperor to do what he will with his own, so long as he is 
Emperor." 



XXXVII. 



LUTHER VISITED IN SICKNESS BY THE ELECTOR JOHN FREDERICK. 



A DANGEROUS illness which befell Luther at Smalcald, in 
1537, presents another instance of the friendship subsisting 
between him and his Prince. Meurer, quoting older authorities 
(p. 594), tells us how Luther, despairing of recovery, exclaimed : 
1 ' I commend myself to Thee, Lord, thou faithful God ; I am 
ready to die when, where, and how it pleases Thee, my God, for 
thy will is best !" " Scarcely had he uttered these words, when 
behold his Highness John Frederick, the Elector of Saxony, came 
to visit the sick Luther, who received the Prince with a prayer 
for God's blessing on him. Afterwards his electoral Grace com- 
forted the patient with these words among others : ' Our Lord 
God will have mercy on us for the sake of his word and name, 
and prolong your life, dear father. 7 Here he turned away, for his 
eyes overflowed. A little while after, Luther begged those 
standing around him, as Philip Melanchthon, Spalatin and Myco- 
nius, with Hans von Dolzig, to pray with all their might against 



127 



128 LUTHER VISITED BY JOHN" FREDERICK. 

the great prince of this world, the devil. * * * * After this he 
thanked the Prince heartily for his gracious visit, and for that he 
had with him endured steadfastly and borne much for the sake 
of the Gospel ; which precious treasure he commended for the 
future to his G-r ace's hands. On which the Prince replied, ' I 
fear, dear doctor, that if God take you from us, He may take his 
precious Word away with you. 7 ' Ah no, my gracious Master, 
that He will not,' said Luther, ' for there are now many learned 
and faithful men whose hearts are set to do right, and who under- 
stand the matter well ; and I hope God will give them grace to 
set their face as a rock and hold firm, and so the truth may be 
preserved. God Almighty grant it!' he concluded, clasping his 
hands together. But the Elector said to the pastors present : 
' Dear sirs, see to it that you keep us close to the pure Word of 
God, that we may stand before His face.' * * * When the Elec- 
tor was about to take his leave, he once more comforted the sick 
man with many kind words, and at last ended by saying, that if 
it should be, after all, God's will to take him, as he trusted would 
not be the case, he begged him not to be under any anxiety 
about his wife and children : * For,' said he, ' your wife shall be 
my wife, and your children my children.' " 

In the engraving Melanchthon is seen in the foreground 
struggling with his anguish ; behind him stands Myconius listen- 
ing to the Prince, while Spalatin is leaning over the pillow of his 
sick friend. 



XXXVIII. 



LUTHER'S PORTRAIT TAKEN BY LUCAS CRANACH. 



rPHE engraving before us is a fitting commemoration of the 
J- artist to whose affectionate industry we owe our acquaint- 
ance with the outward aspect of the great Reformer. Cranach is 
here supposed to be sketching the first of the numerous portraits 
which he made of his " Freund und Grevatter," Luther. Me- 
lanchthon is criticizing the resemblance of the features, while 
Spalatin is reading aloud to Luther to pass away the time. 

Truly may Cranach be called the painter of the Reformation, 
the spirit of which inspired all the productions of his genius, and 
whose heroes he has immortalized in his noblest works. Thus, 
in the altar-piece of the parish church of Wittenberg, he has 
grouped around the picture of the first institution of the Lord's 
Supper three paintings representing the chief rites of the Protest- 
ant Church. In the centre, Luther is preaching, while on the 
right, baptism is administered by Melanchthon, the writer of the 
Augsburg Confession ; and on the left, Bugenhagen, who was 

17 129 



130 LUTHEE'S PORTEAIT. 

pre-eminently the pastor of his fellow-citizens, is confessing and 
absolving penitents. Various other altar-pieces by the same 
master contain similar symbolical embodiments of Protestant 
thought and feeling. 

From Luther's letters, as well as other sources, we gather 
that Lucas Cranach lived in habits of intimate intercourse with 
himself and his brethren ; and the artist had also a principal 
share in setting up the first printing-press in Wittenberg, which 
became the fountain-head whence the publications of the Re- 
formed party were diffused over Germany. 



:^- 




XXXIX, 



LUTHER IN PRAYER AT THE BEDSIDE OF MELANCHTHON. 



THE engraving before us represents an event which took place 
in 1540, when Melanchthon, on his way to the Conference 
in Hagenau, was taken dangerously ill in Weimar, with a disor- 
der which seems to have been principally brought on by his dis- 
tress of mind at having consented to the bigamy of the Land- 
grave of Hesse. The Elector sent in all haste for Luther, who 
found his friend already speechless and insensible, with his coun- 
tenance apparently fixed in death. Shocked at the sight, Luther 
exclaimed, " God forefend, how has the devil defaced this Orga- 
non!" Then turning to the window, he poured out fervent 
prayers. " Our Lord Grocl," said Luther afterwards, " must needs 
hear me ; for * * * I brought to His remembrance all the pro- 
mises about hearing prayer that I could repeat from the Scrip- 
tures ; so that He must needs hear me, if I were to trust His pro- 
mises." Thereupon he took Melanchthon by the hand, and said, 
" Be of good courage, Philip, thou shalt not die. Although God 



131 



132 LUTHEK AT THE BEDSIDE OF MELANCHTHON.' 

had cause to slay, yet He willeth not the death of the sinner, 
but rather that he should be converted and live. * * * Has He 
not received again to Himself the greatest sinners on earth ? * * 
much less will He reject thee, my Philip, or suffer thee to perish 
in sin and sorrow. * * * Therefore trust in the Lord, who can 
kill and make alive again." Melanchthon having revived enough 
to express his wish not to be called back to earth, Luther replied, 
" No, my Philip, thou must serve our Lord yet longer here •" 
and, fetching some food, forced the unwilling Melanchthon to take 
it with the threat : ! l Thou must swallow it, or I will speak 
the ban over thee." Melanchthon, after his recovery, declared 
that he could truly say that he had been called back from death 
to life, and if Luther had not come, he must have died. 

This is one instance out of many of Luther's strong faith in 
the power of prayer. He said once, as Mathesius tells us, "I 
have prayed our Philip, and my Kate, and Master Myconius out 
of the jaws of death." And in the Table-talk (xv. § 1) he says, 
"No one believes how effectual and mighty is prayer, and how 
much it can bring to pass, but he who has learned it by experi- 
ence, and proved it himself. * * This I know, that so often as I 
have prayed fervently, with utter earnestness, I have been richry 
heard, and have received more than I asked. G-od has, indeed, 
sometimes tarried, but He has come notwithstanding." 



XL. 



LUTHER'S SINGING SCHOOL IN THE HOUSE ; AND THE INTRODUCTION OF 

THE GERMAN HYMN. 



I 



N" ; framing the services of the Reformed Church, Luther recog- 
nised the great importance of music as an element of public 
worship. He himself composed the music for the first German 
mass that was sung at Wittenberg, and his beautiful chorales for 
many of the hymns which he wrote are well known. When 
about to engage in this work, he invited Walther and RupfF — as 
the best musicians of his time — to come to Wittenberg, and stu- 
died thorough-bass under them. Walther says that, having 
remarked with wonder the admirable manner. in which Luther 
adapted the notes, both to the accent and spirit of the words, in 
his German Sanctus, he asked him one day where he had ob- 
tained instruction in this art ; on which Luther smiled, and an • 
swered, " The poet Virgil has taught it to me, who knows how to 
adapt his words and rhythm so skillfully to the story which he 
relates. So, too, in music, every note and phrase should be 
regulated by the text." 

133 



134 LUTHER'S SINGING SCHOOL. 

So early as 1525 he published his first collection of hymns 
and psalms, in the preface to which he says, "And I have had 
them set to music, arranged for four voices, because I desire 
that the young,, who must and ought to be instructed in music 
and other liberal arts, should have somewhat to take the place 
of wanton and carnal songs, and in their stead learn something 
wholesome, and thus imbibe what is good along with what is 
pleasant, as is fitting for youth. Also because I am not of 
opinion that the arts should be felled to the earth and die out 
through the Gospel, as some superstitious persons pretend ; but I 
would fain see all arts, specially music, in the service of Him who 
has given and created them.' 7 Again, in the Table-talk (lxviii. § 1) 
he says, " It is absolutely necessary to retain music in the schools. 
A schoolmaster must be able to sing, or I would not look at him. 
Neither should young men be ordained to the ministry, unless 
they have been well trained and practised beforehand in the 
schools." And Meurer tells us that, in his preface to the " Har- 
monies for the Passion of Christ," he wrote a special eulogy of 
music, saying how "it has been implanted in all and every crea- 
ture since the foundation of the world. For even the air, which 
in itself is invisible, and not perceptible by any of our senses, and 
least of all musical, but quite dumb, yet is turned into a mere 
motion, which we first hear, and then also feel, by which the 
Holy Spirit hints to us wonderful mysteries." 




! 



XLI. 



LUTHER'S SUMMER PLEASURES IN THE MIDST OF HIS FAMILY. 



THE love of nature was a striking feature in Luther's character, 
no less than the warmth of his domestic affections. " Ah," 
said he once, looking at his children, "how great, how rich, and 
how noble are the blessings God gives in marriage ! what a joy is 
bestowed on man through his progeny ! * * * the fairest and 
sweetest of all joys." (Table-talk, xliii. § 47.) " Children are 
the loveliest fruit and bond of marriage ; they knit together and 
preserve the bond of love. They are the finest wool on the 
sheep's back." 

After his marriage Luther planted a garden, and writes, in 
December, 1525, to Link : " I thank you kindly for promising to 
send me seeds against next spring ; pray send as many as you 
can. * * * For while Satan with his members is raging, I will 
laugh him to scorn, beholding my gardens, i. e. the Creator's 
blessings, and enjoying their fruits to his praise." And the fol- 
lowing summer he writes to Spalatin : " If you will come to me, 



136 LUTHEE'S SUMMEE PLEASUEES. 

you shall see some monuments of our old love and friendship. I 
have planted a garden and constructed a fountain, both with great 
success. Come, and you shall be crowned with lilies and roses." 
Meurer tells us that, in the year 1541, when there was a very 
beautiful spring, and all around was bud and blossom, Luther 
said to Dr. Jonas, "If only sin and death were away, we could 
well content ourselves with such a paradise. But it will be far 
more beautiful when the old world is renewed, and an eternal 
spring shall begin, to endure for ever." And as one day his 
children were standing round the table, looking eagerly at the 
grapes and peaches on it, he said, " He who would know what it 
is to rejoice in hope, may see a perfect counterpart of it here. 
that we could look forward to the last day with such a joyful 
hope !" 

A similar scene is that represented by the engraving, includ- 
ing, as it does, the table-companions of Luther, to whom we owe 
the preservation of numberless discourses of his, and anecdotes 
of his household life. The child with the dog reminds us of that 
passage in the Table-talk (iii. § 92) : "Dr. Martin's little son was 
playing with his dog. As his father looked at him he said, ' This 
boy is preaching God's Word with his act and work, for God 
says, " Have dominion over the fish of the sea, and every living 
thing that moveth upon the earth," and the dog will bear every- 
thing from the, child.' " 

Every little thing in nature furnished Luther with food for 
pious thoughts. Thus, " one day when two birds kept flying into 
his garden, where they had made a nest, but were repeatedly 



LUTHEE'S SUMMER PLEASURES. 137 

scared away by the steps of passers-by, he exclaimed, ' you 
dear little birds, do not fly away ; I mean you well from the bot- 
tom of my heart, if you could but believe it. Just so do we re- 
fuse to trust and believe in our Lord God, who yet means us and 
shows us all kindness ; He will assuredly not strike us dead, who 
has given his Son for us.' ; Meurer tells us, that, " in the sum- 
mer time he was frequently invited to dine by the pastors or 
mayors of the neighboring villages. When his health allowed he 
gladly accepted such invitations, generally preaching in the vil- 
lage ; but always caused his dinner to be cooked for him before- 
hand at home, that he might not give occasion for any to put 
themselves to inconvenient expense by preparing for him. Thus, 
taking his meat and drink with him, he would allow any of his 
table companions who wished it to accompany him ; but his lute 
was never left behind, and, so soon as the meal was over and 
grace said, he would play for half an hour or longer, as time 
permitted." 



XLIL 

LUTHER'S WINTER PLEASURES IX THE MIDST OF HIS FAMILY. 



THE engraving shows us Luther enjoying with his family the 
festival of Christmas Eve, so dear to all German households. 
In the figure of the eldest son, whom Melanchthon is teaching 
to aim with his new crossbow at the apple hanging in the tree, 
we detect an allusion to the well-known letter addressed to this 
child by Luther when at Coburg, assisting to deliberate on the 
Augsburg Confession (Xo. 1228) : 

" Mercy and peace in Christ, my dear little son. I am glad 
to hear that you learn your lessons well and pray diligently. Go 
on doing so, my child. When I come home I will bring you a 
pretty fairing. I know a very pretty, pleasant garden ; and in 
it there are a great many children, all dressed in little golden 
coats, picking up nice apples, and pears, and cherries, and plums, 
under the trees. And they sing and jump about, and are very 
merry. And besides that, they have got beautiful little horses, 
with golden bridles and silver saddles. Then I asked the man to 



140 LUTHEK'S WINTER PLEASUEES. 

whom the garden belonged whose children they were ; and he 
said, ' These are children who love to pray and learn their les- 
sons, and do as they are bid.' Then I said, ' Dear sir, I have a 
little son called Johnny Luther ; may he come into this garden 
too V * * And the man said, f If he loves to pray and learn his 
lessons, and is good, he may ; and Philip and Jos too ; and when 
they all come together, they shall have besides, little fifes and 
drums, and all sorts of musical instruments to play with, and 
they shall dance, and shoot with little bows and arrows.' And 
he showed me a smooth lawn in the garden, all made ready for 
dancing, and there were hanging up golden fifes and drums, and 
beautiful silver crossbows. But it was early in the morning, and 
the children had not had their breakfast yet, so I could not stay 
to see the dancing ; but I said to the man, ' sir, I will go home 
directly, and write all about it to my dear little son Johnny, and 
tell him * * * to be good, that he may come into this garden. 
But he has a cousin Lena, and he must bring her with him. 7 
Then he said, ' Yes, he may ; go away, and write him word 
so.' * * * " 

Of Luther's kindliness and thoughtful care for all around him 
numberless instances occur in his letters and the records pre- 
served by his friends. Thus, on occasion of the departure of an 
old servant, he writes to his wife, telling her to make him a con- 
siderable present ; and, after suggesting various means of raising 
the money to do so, orders her, if these expedients fail, to sell 
some of their plate. For another servant, who from an injury to 
his arm was no longer able to work, he wishes to purchase a cot- 



LUTHER'S WINTER PLEASURES. 141 

tage ; that the old man might be sure of a home after his master's 
death. Yet he was so poor himself, that we find, on occasion of 
his journeys, that his travelling expenses had to be defrayed by 
the prince or university, and that the Elector appears to have 
been in the habit of presenting him with a gown when he saw 
that it was needed. Indeed, he seems often to have brought him- 
self to the verge of distress by his liberality, while he constantly 
refused presents, or even to receive any remuneration for his 
writings, or for his lectures as a professor of the University. 



XLIII. 



LUTHER BESIDE THE COFFIN OF HIS DAUGHTER MAGDALENE. 



LUTHER was called to learn a father's sorrows as well as joys. 
When his infant daughter was suddenly snatched away by 
death, in 1528, he thus writes to Hausrnann : " I have lost my 
.little daughter Elizabeth. I cannot but wonder what a sick, yea, 
almost womanish heart she has left me, so greatly do I grieve 
over her. I had never imagined beforehand how tender a 
father's heart grows towards his children." But a far heavier 
trial befell him in 1542, when his eldest and favourite daughter 
Magdalene died, at the age of fourteen ; of whom he says (Let- 
ters, No. 2096), " I loved her indeed, and not even because she 
was my own flesh so much as because of her gentleness and doci- 
lity and perfectly dutiful conduct. * * I have, indeed, loved her 
most ardently." We learn from the Table-talk (xlviii. § 9), that 
when she was lying dangerously ill Luther said : "I love her 
very dearly ; but, dear Lord, since it is thy will to take her from 
me, I shall gladly know her to be with Thee." And going up to. 



143 



144 LUTHER BESIDE HIS DAUGHTER'S COFFIN. 

his daughter's bedside, he said to her f " Magdalene, my child, 
you would gladly stay here with your father, would you not? 
and yet be willing to depart to your other Father?" She replied, 
"Yes, dearest father, as God will." "My darling child, the 
spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak ;" then turning aside, he 
said, " I love her very, very dearly ; if the flesh is so strong, how 
strong will the spirit be ?" 

As he saw her lying in her coffin, he exclaimed, " Thou dar- 
ling Lena, how happy art thou now ! thou wilt arise again, and 
shine as a star, yea, as the sun. * * * I am joyful in the spirit, 
yet after the flesh I am very sad ; the flesh will have its way ; 
parting is more painful than can be expressed. How strange it 
is to know so surely that she is at peace and happy, and yet to 
be so sad." So, too, as some were expressing sorrow for his loss, 
he replied, " You ought to rejoice rather, for I have sent a saint 
to heaven, yea, a living saint. that we all might have such a 
death ! Such a death I could fain die this hour !" 



XLIV. 



LUTHER AND HANS K0HLHASE. 



IN his notes to these plates Professor Gelzer says : "To illus- 
trate at once Luther's moral courage and the power of his 
name, the artist has availed himself of the story of a secret inter- 
view held by the Reformer with the unhappy Hans Kohlhase, 
who, once a man of respectable character and position, at last, 
from resentment and exasperation at injustice for which he was 
unable to obtain redress, became a robber and highwayman, and 
in 1540 ended his life upon the wheel. Originally no doubt a 
robust and energetic nature, his outraged sense of justice and 
wildly passionate temper had driven him into a career of crime 
and ruin. His was certainly a character which must have in- 
spired the Reformer with the liveliest sympathy ; for Luther's 
soul, too, concealed abysses of passion, from which, however, his 
better spirit and his faith saved him. 

"According to the account given in the Chronicle of Peter 
Haffitt, the misguided man was induced to repair to Luther in 

19 



146 LUTHER AND HANS KOHLHASE. 

secret by a warning letter which he received from Luther, calling 
upon him with all earnestness to change his ways. Without giv- 
ing his name, he supplicated Luther to grant him an interview. 
Then it occurred to the Doctor that it might perhaps be Kohl- 
hase, so he went himself down to the gate and said to him : 
1 Numquid tu es Hans Kohlhase V and Kohlhase answered, ' Jam 
Domine Doctor.' On this the Doctor let him in, conducted him 
privately into his own chamber, and sent for Melanchthon, Cru- 
ciger, and other theologians. After they had come, Kohlhase 
related the whole affair to them, and they stayed listening till 
late in the night. Early in the morning Kohlhase confessed to 
the Doctor and received the sacrament, and promised him to de- 
sist from his evil ways, and henceforth to do no more harm in the 
land of Saxony ; which promise he also kept. After this he de- 
parted, unknown and unremarked, from the place ; for they had 
consoled him by saying that they would use their endeavours to 
get him righted, so that his affairs might come to a good end. 

11 As their efforts, however, were not successful, Kohlhase 
went back to club-law and violence. 

" In the engraving Kohlhase is represented as in a state of 
despair, throwing himself before Luther as the only one in whom 
he still believes, whom he still respects ; Luther, on the other 
hand, receives him with a look of the deepest sadness and com- 
passion, seeing in his benighted soul the traces of a great and 
holy energy, over whose decay and ruin he mourns. 7 ' 



XLY. 



LUTHER MINISTERING TO THE SICK AND DYING IN TIME OF PESTILENCE. 



THREE times during Luther's ministry did the plague break 
out at Wittenberg, in 1516, 1527, and 1537, and on each 
occasion he remained faithful at his post, in spite of the earnest 
entreaties of his friends to avoid the danger. The first of these 
pestilences has been alluded to in Section XY. On the second 
occasion the University was removed to Jena, and Luther and 
Bugenhagen alone remained behind to fulfill the pastoral office 
among the sick and dying of their flock. Thus Luther practised 
what he was teaching in the tract he wrote at this time, entitled 
11 An Answer to the Question, Whether One may flee from Pes- 
tilence." "We may not lay the same burden on all [strong and 
weak], but no one has a right to flee, contrary to God's express 
Word and command ; preachers and pastors are bound to stand 
firm and remain in time of great mortality ; for then there is the 
greatest need of the spiritual office. * * So likewise it is the duty 
of those who hold civil offices to remain, and not to leave the 

147 



148 LUTHER MINISTERING TO THE SICK. 

people without a head or government. And the same holds good 
of all persons who have to render service or duties to each other. 
Yea, no neighbor ought to forsake his fellows unless others be at 
hand to tend the sick ; for in such cases the sentence of Christ is 
to be feared — ' I was sick and ye visited me not.' " We find 
from Luther's letters, that in 1539 he even took into his house 
the four orphan children of a friend, who with his wife had died 
of the plague. In November, 1527, Luther writes : " My house 
has begun to be a hospital. * * * * May the Lord Jesus stand by 
us in mercy. Thus without there are fightings and within there 
are fears, and truly vehement enough ; Christ is visiting us. 
The only consolation with which we can repel the rage of Satan 
is, that we have G-od's Word to save souls, even if he devour the 
body. Therefore commend us to the prayers of the brethren, 
that we may steadfastly endure the Lord's hand upon us, and 
prevail against Satan's might and cunning, whether by life or 
death." At the close of this year he writes again : " I can say 
with the Apostle, ' as dying and behold I live.' * * * God has 
had mercy on us in a wonderful manner." 



Jtf. 




XLVI. 



LUTIIER GOES TO EISLEBEN. IIIS DANGER BY THE WAY. HTS ARRIVAL. 



LUTHER'S last work on earth was that of a peacemaker. The 
Counts of Mansfeld, his native province, had long been at 
variance with each other ; and their subjects, among whom were 
Luther's relatives, suffered greatly from the effects of their con- 
tinual strife and litigation. They at length declared themselves 
ready to abide by Luther's decision, and, therefore, notwithstand- 
ing great infirmity, he had twice in October, and again in Decem- 
ber, 1545, fruitlessly undertaken the long journey to Eisleben, to 
mediate between them. On the 23d of January, 1546, having 
received a fresh invitation, he again set out in mid-winter on the 
same errand, accompanied by his three sons. 

For some months previously his mind had been filled with 
thoughts of death, and a short time before he started on his jour- 
ney he said : " When I come back from Eisleben I will lay me in 
my coffin ; the world is weary of me, and I of the world ; pray 
G-od that He will mercifully grant me a peaceful death." At Halle 



149 



150 LUTHER GOES TO EISLEBEX. 

Luther was detained some days by storms and floods, and when 
at last he, with his sons and Dr. Jonas, ventured to cross the 
swollen river in a boat, the passage was not accomplished without 
considerable danger from the currents and floating blocks of ice : 
so that he said to his friend Dr. Jonas. "What a triumph it 
would be for the devil if I. with my three sons and you. should 
be drowned in this flood !" 

At the borders of the province he was met by the Counts 
with a large retinue, and conducted into his native city with all 
honours : but so exhausted by the journey, that his attendants 
were in fear for his life as he entered Eisleben. Through care. 
however, he recovered sufficiently to transact the business on 
which he had come, and even preached four times within a fort- 
night, his last sermon being on the 14th of February, from 
Matt. xi. 25, 30, on which day he also received the communion 
and held an ordination. On this day he writes to his wife for 
the last time : " Dear Ketha. we hope to come home this week, 
if God will. God has shown us great mercy here : for the Counts 
have adjusted all their differences, with the exception of two or 
three points : one of which is, that the two brothers. Count Ger- 
hard and Count Albert, shall become as brethren again : the 
which I mean to take in hand to-day. by inviting them to dine 
with me. and thus bringing them to speech with each other." 



XLtll. 



LUTHER'S DEATH 



LUTHER'S work was ended, and he was called to his reward. 
On Tuesday, the 16th of February, his friends overheard him 
praying thus, while standing, as he was wont to do, in the win- 
dow : " God, heavenly Father, I beseech Thee in the name of 
thy dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom I through thy grace 
have confessed and preached, that Thou wilt, according to thy 
promise, for the glory of thy name, mercifully hear me in this 
also, * * * and graciously preserve the Church of my beloved 
country unto the end ; that it fall not away, but remain in the 
pure truth, constant in the confession of thy Word, so that the 
whole world may be convinced that Thou hast sent me. So be 
it, blessed Lord. Amen ! Amen !" 

The next morning, feeling unwell, he remarked to Jonas : 
" I was born and baptized here in Eisleben, what if I am likewise 
to die here ?" Yet he was able to dine and sup with his friends, 
and many of his sayings, playful and serious, during this last meal 



151 



152 LUTHER'S DEATH. 

have been recorded. Among other things he remarked, "Twenty 
years is a short time ; yet in that time the world would become 
a desert if matrimony were to cease. How completely is this 
world an ever-fresh creation ! God gathers him a Church for the 
most part out of little children. * * * In the next life we shall 
be renewed in the image and knowledge of God ; but in such 
sort, that we, fathers, mothers, and friends, shall know each other 
again better than Adam knew Eve when she was brought unto 
him. 77 

A few hours later he himself had entered into rest. After 
supper he complained of an oppression on his chest, which gra- 
dually increased, in spite of the remedies employed, till at three 
o 7 clock, on the morning of the 18th, he fell asleep without strug- 
gle or pain, surrounded by his sons and friends, and the Counts 
his hosts, with their families. 

About an hour before his death he prayed, saying : "0 my 
heavenly Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
Thou God of all consolation, I thank Thee that Thou hast re- 
vealed in me thy dear Son Jesus Christ, on whom I believe, 
whom I have preached and confessed, whom I have loved and 
praised, whom the Pope and all the ungodly dishonour, perse- 
cute, and blaspheme ; I beseech Thee by our Lord Jesus Christ, 
suffer me to commend my soul to Thee. heavenly Father, 
though I must put off this body, and be snatched away from this 
life, yet I know and am sure that I shall abide for ever with 
Thee, and that none can take me out of thy hands. 77 

After a pause he repeated the text, "God so loved the 



LUTHEE'S DEATH. 153 

world," &c. (John iii. 16.) And again, " He that is our God is 
the God of salvation ; and unto God the Lord belong the issues 
from death." (Ps. lxviii. 20.) Some time after he repeated 
quickly three times over the words, " Pater, in manus tuas com- 
mendo spiritum meum, redemisti me, Deus veritatis." 

As consciousness seemed to be departing, Dr. Jonas called to 
him with a loud voice, " Reverend Father, do you die in the 
faith of Christ and the doctrine that you have preached ?" when 
he answered distinctly, "Yes." Upon this he closed his eyes, 
and fell into a natural sleep, which soon changed to the sleep of 
death. 

Thus in his death were fulfilled the last words which he ever 
wrote, probably, indeed, written on the day before he died. 
They were an autograph in the Bible of the Count's steward : 
" John viii. 51. * Verily I say unto you, if a man keep my say- 
ing, he shall never taste of death. 7 Never see death! How 
incredible is this saying, and contrary to universal and daily 
experience ! Yet it is the truth, that when a man is earnestly 
meditating on God's word in his heart, believes it, and thereupon 
falls asleep or dies, he sinks and passes away before he perceives 
or is conscious of the approach of death j and, without doubt, 
departs hence, happy in the Word which he has thus believed 
and meditated on." 



20 



XL VIII. 



LUTHER'S BURIAL 



ONCE more we stand before Luther in Wittenberg ; but those 
eloquent lips are silent, and the eye is closed at last that 
had never quailed in life before Emperor and Estates, before 
Pope or Cardinal. 

By command of the Elector his body had been brought in 
solemn procession from Eisleben, to be interred in the church on 
whose gates he had, thirty years before, set the handwriting of 
doom against the mighty spiritual empire, which had been 
11 weighed in the balance and found wanting." Behind the bier 
stands his old friend, Melanchthon, who, during a long life, had 
unfalteringly laboured and fought by his side, endeavouring, in 
such words as these, to express the true significance of Luther's 
work, and the worth of his character : 

<< # # * j]j S teachings consisted not in opinions promulgated 
with seditious eagerness, but in setting forth the Divine Will and 
the true worship of God, interpreting Holy Scripture, and preach- 



156 LUTHEE'S BUEIAL. 

ing the Divine Word, that is to say, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
* * * But if it were my design to pass a eulogy, what a noble 
oration could I not make on such a life ? more than sixty years 
spent in the most constant and strenuous endeavour to serve God 
and practise all virtue ! Wo irregular desires or seditious ten- 
dencies were ever seen in him ; much more, has he many times 
dissuaded from the use of arms. In his management of the 
affairs of the Church, he never employed any expedients to in- 
crease his own power or that of his followers. This I hold to be 
a proof of wisdom and virtue above the scope of mere human 
effort ; for it would need nothing less than God's power and 
grace to curb and govern a spirit so vehement, so lofty, so ardent 
as Luther's had proved itself to be. And what shall I say of his 
other virtues ? How often have I surprised him praying with 
tears for the whole Church ! * * * And hence it was that, in 
weighty deliberations on great public emergencies, he was, as we 
have seen, endowed with such wonderful energy of soul, that he 
was not to be daunted or turned aside from his course by any 
sort of terror. * * * Again, he possessed such acuteness of mind, 
that in cases of difficulty he alone discerned the right path to 
take. * * * Of his eloquence we possess imperishable monuments : 
it was such that, without doubt, he is to be reckoned among the 
greatest of orators. * * * And now he is united to the prophets 
of whom he loved to speak ; now, they welcome him among 
them as their fellow-labourer, and with him give thanks unto the 
Lord, who gathers together and preserves His Church !" 

When the oration was ended, the corpse was lowered into the 



LUTHER'S BURIAL. 157 

vault prepared for it beside the pulpit whence the great Re- 
former had for four-and-thirty years proclaimed the Gospel ; and 
thus was this precious instrument of the Holy Spirit laid in the 
earth and sown in weakness, to be raised in the last day incor- 
ruptible and full of glory. 

TTell might the Church say with Melanchthon (on hearing of 
his death), " Xot through human sagacity hath the doctrine of 
the forgiveness of sins and faith in the Son of God been disco- 
vered, but it hath been revealed to us by God through this man 
whom He hath raised up !" 



THE END 



' 






,V ^ ^_;</ x .'"* ; 






'<£. 





















-7 s 






o o N 






Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: April 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



